Rescue work continues four days after a 10-year-old boy fell into a 35-meter-deep concrete pipe in Vietnam. The emergency services have to deal with new problems because of the difficult terrain and the extremely complicated circumstances, said Doan Tan Buu, a spokesman for the provincial administration of Dong Thap, on Wednesday of the German Press Agency.

"We believe rescuers will pull the concrete pillar out of the ground today, but we don't expect good news for the boy." A camera previously lowered into the pipe had shown no sign of life from the child.

One of the problems is the amount of mud surrounding the pipe, Buu said. Further drilling work is required. The rescuers tried everything to pull the pipe out of the ground in the late afternoon. "We hope for a miracle," said the community's Facebook page in southwest Vietnam.

Little Nam fell into the pipe on Saturday at a construction site for a new bridge. It is only about 25 centimeters in diameter. Authorities said no one thought a ten-year-old could be trapped so deep in the tube. The military also participated in the rescue work. The rescuers continued to use special equipment to loosen the earth around the pipe so that it could be pulled up with a crane.