A 5-year-old Moroccan boy who was trapped in a well for more than four days has died.
Morocco’s ruler, King Mohammed VI expressed his condolences to the child’s family in a statement released by the palace.
The boy, named by local media as Rayan, fell into a 105-feet well outside his home in Morocco’s mountainous northern Chefchaouen province on Tuesday.
For the last four days, rescuers worked tirelessly to dig out the boy safely, as news about the rescue gripped the nation, and the #SaveRayan hashtag began trending on social media.
He was pulled out of the well in the tiny town of Ighran on Saturday night, but it was too late.
Rescuers were working with heightened concerns about a possible landslide, making the operation especially difficult. The boy was trapped in a hole that seemed too narrow for crews to reach safely.
Search crews used bulldozers to dig a parallel ditch during the first three days of the operation. On Friday, they began digging a tunnel to reach the child.
Abdelhadi Temrani, the head of the rescue committee, said earlier on Saturday there had still been hope of finding Rayan alive.
On Saturday morning, rescuers said about 6 feet from where Rayan is trapped.
“The diggers encountered a hard rock on their way, and were therefore very careful to avoid any landslides or cracks,” Temrani said.
“It took about five hours to get rid of the rock because the digging was slow and was done in a careful way to avoid creating cracks in the hole from below, which could threaten the life of the child as well as the rescue workers,” he added.
It’s still unclear how exactly the boy fell, but the small village of about 500 people has many deep wells. They are mainly used for irrigating cannabis crops, the AP reported. Most of the wells are believed to have protective covers.
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