A six-year-old Indian boy trapped in a well for more than two days was rescued on Sunday - his birthday - by army soldiers in a drama that gripped the nation.
Prince, who has only one name, accidentally fell into the well - one foot (0.3 metres) in diameter - on Friday while playing near his house in the city of Kurukshetra in the northern state of Haryana.
Hundreds of anxious onlookers erupted in cheers and applause as a rescue worker was pulled out of the well holding the little boy, bundled up in a white sheet. Well-wishers held up a pink poster that read "Happy Birthday Prince" and garlanded the boy before he was taken away for a medical examination.
India has been mesmerised by footage of Prince sitting at the bottom of the 60-foot (18.2 metre) well - caught on closed-circuit television cameras lowered into the pit by rescuers to pinpoint his location. Though the boy looked a little shaken and scared, he appeared unharmed despite his steep fall, according to television footage.
His parents, relatives and a large crowd of onlookers, joined by soldiers and scores of journalists, have kept vigil at the mouth of the well ever since Prince fell.
Rescue workers gave him food and rehydration fluids, and also pumped extra oxygen into the pit during the two-day ordeal.