Rescuers race to save toddler who fell into 100 metre well

Rescuers in Southern Spain are racing against the clock in a bid to save a two-year-old boy who fell into a 100-metre-deep borehole shaft two days ago.

The shaft is only 25cm in diameter, much too small for an adult to enter. It was bored last month during water prospection works and was left unmarked, Nine News reports.

The rescuers are digging a horizontal tunnel in an attempt to save the boy. A top official says the new tunnel will help rescuers, who failed to extract soil from the well with suctioning machinery. A hard rock has impeded any further progress beyond an 80-metre mark.

The missing toddler disappeared on Sunday (local time) while out with family members in a mountainous area near Totalan, near the provincial capital of Malaga.

Firefighters using a robot camera in the early hours of Monday found a bag of candy that the boy was carrying when he went missing.

More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers have been involved in the rescue effort to find the little boy.