A man has been trapped inside a 750-metre deep pit at a closed mine in Madhuban area since Monday afternoon with rescue attempts failing to trace the man, who is apparently still alive and responding to queries from outside.

Some local villagers and BCCL employees apparently heard a man screaming for help from an abandoned mine, around 30km from Dhanbad district headquarters, around 2pm on Monday.

After initial attempts to rescue the man failed, they informed BCCL Area-I officials around evening. Soon, BCCL authorities launched a massive search operation, which continued till around 11.30pm before being stopped due to poor light.

Sources claimed that though BCCL employees stopped the search, local people spent the whole night sitting near the pit. They also dropped water and biscuits with a 400m coir rope at night, which apparently have kept the man alive.

A team from Mines Rescue Station at Bastacola has also been pressed into action on Tuesday morning but till the reports last came in, the man was still inside.

Assistant general manager, Area-I, Chittaranjan Kumar and general manager in-charge Vasundhara Kumar have been supervising the rescue operation since Monday.

"We are putting in our best efforts to save the trapped person with help from local people. We are also taking suggestions from Directorate General of Mines Safety in this regard," Chittaranjan said.

United Coal Workers' Union area president Dayal Mahto, said negligence on part of BCCL led to the incident.