1.
SV Rescuers around shaft
0.05

2.
SV Father & other people watching (2 shots)
0.13

3.
SV Rescue worker lowered down hole head first (2 shots)
0.26

4.
SV Drill lowered to dig new shaft & cameramen watch (3 shots)
0.38

5.
SV Rescue workers lowered into new shaft
0.42

6.
SV Rescue workers round shaft with lights
0.45

7.
SV Father & other people watching
0.48

8.
SV Crane hauled out--man carrying by appears (2 shots)
1.04

9.
SV Rescue workers round boy who is laid on stretcher (2 shots)
1.17

10.
SV Boy being carried away
1.23



Initials BB/1631 LD/AS/BB/1700



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Six-year-old Anthony Bernardino was rescued from a narrow 27-foot (9 metre) shaft in El Monte, California, after spending seven hours trapped during the night of Thursday-Friday (March 2-3).

Early attempts to extricate young Anthony proved futile, then construction workers drilled a hole parallel to the one in which he was wedged, then dug across and pulled him out. Suffering only from multiple bruises and a suspected dislocated hip, Anthony was then taken by Helicopter to Los Angeles County Hospital some 20 miles (32 Kms) away.

Anthony had fallen while flying a kite with his father and brother.

SYNOPSIS: Rescue workers fighting against time to reach a six-year-old boy trapped down a 27-foot (9 metre) hole on a construction site in California. The Boy's father--along with hundreds of others--watched as one potential rescuer was lowered head first down the narrow shaft. But he, like others before him, was unable to reach Anthony Bernardino.

Then, as young Anthony babbled into a microphone which had been lowered to him, workers drilled a parallel shaft, to lower another rescuer down the hole.

Tension was high as seven hours after the ordeal started, the crane pulled up the rescuer--holding Anthony in his arms, alive and virtually unhurt except for bruises and a possible dislocated hip.

Anthony had fallen on Thursday evening, while out flying a kite with his father and brother. Throughout the time he was trapped, he kept up his spirits and at one point announced that there were rattle-snakes down there--but it was the noise of the drill and the rescuer digging across to him from the parallel shaft.