Baby elephant rescued from well

This is the heart-warming moment a baby elephant is rescued after plunging into a three-metre deep well.

The one-year-old calf had stumbled into the pit after wandering into a rubber plantation with a herd of elephants in the early hours of Friday morning. While rescuers arrived to free the little male elephant, his mother was zapped after stumbling into an electric fence.

But after three hours of opening up the well with a digger, the calf scrambled free and rejoined his mother who had recovered from the stun. The pair scampered back off into the forest to rejoin other elephants just before sunrise yesterday morning in Chanthaburi province, eastern Thailand.

Resident Siriman Sripen, 29, who lives 200 metres from where the elephant fell, said: ''There are a lot of wild elephants in the area so we're used to this. But I was woken up because I heard the mother elephant was showing distress. She was moody and unsettled because the young baby had fallen into the hole. That's when I called the wildlife staff for help.''

A team of around 15 rescue workers and wildlife park rangers arrived and brought the digger to help free the baby elephant. They smashed open the side of the well to create a muddy slope which the calf was able to clamber up.

Boonnak Pimmuang, head of elephant care in the Kaeng Hang Maeo district forest, said: ''We received reports at 3am about the baby elephant trapped in the hole. The staff coordianted the use of the backhoe (digger) to free the calf as quickly as possible. The rescue was successful and the baby rejoined its mother.''