The incident happened on Monday morning in Barge, Cuneo, when the woman went into the courtyard of her residential building to withdraw water from the well.

But in the process of doing so, disaster struck: the grandmother slipped in a puddle and tumbled in.

Initially the fall was broken by some piping just below the entrance to the well – but the pensioner then slipped further down the shaft, coming to a stop some eight metres lower – suspended seven meters above the cold, dark reservoir of water below, Eco del Chisone reported.

Firemen arrived at the scene shortly afterwards, and were able to descend into the well and winch the woman to safety.

The woman was shaken but otherwise unharmed and relieved to be above ground once again.

Paramedics took her to Santa Croce hospital in nearby Cuneo as a precautionary measure, amazed that in spite of the eight-meter drop and her advanced years, she escaped the ordeal without serious injury. 

In a similar incident this summer, an 80-year-old man got trapped in a muddy drain in a town in the Emilia-Romagna region after he went to clear mud from it.

Read more: Birthday pensioner stuck in drain for 14 hours