Toddler rescued from US bank vault
A toddler has been rescued from a bank vault in California more than five hours after she wandered in and the door was shut behind her.
The two-and-a-half-year-old girl, Daniella Sanchez, had walked away from her mother, who works at the Washington Mutual Bank in Redwood.
Rescuers were forced to drill a hole through the door to get to her because the vault had a time lock that stopped it opening until the next morning.
Daniella was taken to hospital for examination yesterday, but her condition was not immediately available.
Fire Chief Paul Wilson said no one realised the child was inside the vault until after they closed the heavy steel and concrete door at 6:30pm. He said the doors could not be reopened until 6am.
After bank security realised there was no way to override the lock, firefighters were called. They drilled a two-inch hole and pushed through a surveillance camera and drinking water, along with a microphone that let the girl’s mother talk to her daughter.
“She hasn’t been crying or anything,” Wilson said.
Fire officials had originally feared the girl would have to stay in the vault all night.
But a private concrete boring firm was brought in and they drilled a hole big enough for the child to crawl out through.
