Perseverance and luck saved a woman who fell into a 120-foot-deep farm well, and her husband who went to her rescue, at A. Vellode near here on Wednesday.

Veerammal, 42, slipped into the well while grazing cattle. On hearing the sound, her husband Ganesan rushed to the well and saw her drowning.

“I immediately jumped into the well and held her up as she fainted. I could not come out as the water level was far below the 12 steps of the well. She does not know swimming. There is no grip on the wall,” he said.

His cries for help went in vain as his farmhouse and well were in an isolated place.

Carrying her on his shoulders, Ganesan was treading in the water for more than an hour, until they were found by farm labourers passing by the well. Some of them jumped into the well to help them out.

Fire service personnel could not rescue them immediately after they reached the spot because of the gap between the steps and the water level.

At last, they rappelled down and lifted the woman with a stretcher. Ganesan, now exhausted, and others were also rescued.

The couple were rushed to a private hospital at Dindigul. Their condition was good, said doctors.