Tragedy as trapped five-year-old Moroccan boy dies in well despite epic rescue operation

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Rescue teams have on Saturday retrieved the lifeless body of a five-year-old Moroccan boy who was trapped more than 100ft underground for four days.

Awram fell into a 32-metre (105ft) well outside his home in Ighran village, in the northern province of Chefchaouen, on Tuesday evening – sparking a rescue mission that captivated the North African nation. 

Rescuers were filmed removing the boy on Saturday night and rushing him away from the scene to be treated by doctors, as thousands of gathered villagers shouted prayers and well wishes.

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However, it has now been confirmed that the young boy could not be resuscitated, having died before rescuers reached him.

The boy was seen wrapped in a yellow blanket after he emerged from a tunnel dug specifically for the rescue.

It came after a medical team was seen entering the tunnel with a stretcher, where they remained for over an hour.

The boy’s anxious parents had been escorted to an ambulance before he was pulled to the surface.

The world had watched on with bated breath as fears persisted that the cave could collapse at any moment during the tense four-day dig.

Moroccan media earlier reported that resuscitation specialists entered the tunnel alongside rescue crews, fuelling fears that the five-year-old required potentially life-saving medical care.

Experts had warned that it was ‘impossible’ to confirm if the youngster was still alive, having fallen into the well five days ago, as the rescue team finally reached the stranded boy on Saturday afternoon.

Oxygen and water had earlier been given to the child, but it is not known if he was able to use them.

Onlookers applauded, sang religious songs, and prayed. At one stage, they chanted in unison ‘Allahu Akbar or ‘God is greatest’ as rescuers prepared to finally enter the cave for the final push Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday morning, the head of the rescue committee, Abdelhadi Temrani, said: ‘It is not possible to determine the child’s condition at all at this time. But we hope to God that the child is alive.’

A massive trench was dug into the hill next to the well, leaving a gaping hole in the reddish earth. By Saturday morning they were digging horizontally towards the well and installing PVC tubes to protect against landslides and get the boy out.

A glacial cold has gripped this mountainous and impoverished region of Rif, which is at an elevation of about 700 metres. As time went on, fears persisted over whether Rayan would have been recovered alive.

‘We’re almost there,’ said one of the operation’s leaders, Abdesalam Makoudi, earlier on Saturday, adding: ‘Tiredness is kicking in, but the whole rescue team is hanging on.’

On Saturday, experts used a rope to send oxygen and water down to the boy as well as a camera to monitor him, but did not provide information about his condition.

On Friday, camera footage from the frantic rescue operation showed the boy lying at the bottom of the shaft, and he appeared to be breathing.

‘I pray and beg God that he comes out of that well alive and safe,’ his mother Wassima Kharchich told local television station 2M. ‘Please God, ease my pain and his, in that hole of dust. The whole family went out to look for him then we realised that he’d fallen down the well,’ she added, with tears in her eyes.

His father, who said he was repairing the well when the boy fell into it, was pictured nervously watching the rescue mission late on Friday night and into today.

‘I keep up hope that my child will get out of the well alive,’ Rayan’s father told 2M on Friday evening. ‘I thank everyone involved and those supporting us in Morocco and elsewhere.’

Scores of townspeople and others gathered to help and watch the rescue efforts. Nationwide, Moroccans took to social media to offer their hopes for the boy’s survival, using the hashtag #SaveRayan which has brought global attention to the rescue efforts.

Thousands of people gathered around the site, surrounded by olive trees, where AFP reporters said the tension was palpable. Some applauded to encourage the rescuers.

The shaft, just 45 centimetres (18 inches) across, was too narrow to reach Rayan, and widening it was deemed too risky – so earth-movers dug a wide slope into the hill to reach him from the side.

The operation made the landscape resemble a construction site. It involved engineers and topographers, and was made more complex by the mix of rocky and sandy soils.

Red-helmeted Civil Defence personnel have at times been suspended by rope, as if on a cliff face.

Working non-stop through the darkness overnight, under powerful floodlights that gave a gloomy air to the scene, workers dug a horizontal tunnel to reach the pocket where Rayan was situated.

Search crews first used five bulldozers to dig vertically to a depth of more than 31 metres, according to Morocco’s official MAP news agency.

Then on Friday, they started excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy as experts in topographical engineering were called upon for help.

Work had to be temporarily halted over fears the ground surrounding the well could collapse, but it was later resumed.

Medical staff, including specialists in resuscitation, are on-site to attend to the boy once he is pulled out, with a helicopter on standby to transport him to the nearest hospital.

The Moroccan government previously said all efforts are being made to help save the boy.

The drama has sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan trending across North Africa.

‘Rescuers are literally in the process of moving a mountain to save little #Rayan. I hope that their efforts will not be in vain and that those who prayed for him will see their prayers answered,’ one internet user wrote.

The boy’s fate has attracted crowds of people to the site, where parked cars lined the roads around the village and supporters are camping.

Police reinforcements have been sent, and the swarm of onlookers has sometimes impeded the rescuers’ efforts.

Authorities have called on the public to ‘let the rescuers do their job and save this child.’

But one volunteer said he was there to help. ‘We’ve been here for three days. Rayan is a child of our region. We won’t leave until he’s out of the well,’ he said.

The accident echoes a tragedy in Spain in early 2019 when a two-year-old child died after falling into an abandoned well 25 centimetres wide and more than 70 metres deep.

Julen Rosello’s body was recovered after a search and rescue operation that lasted 13 days.