Hundreds of mourners have gathered to pay their final respects to the five-year-old boy who died after he was trapped in a well in Morocco for five days, Daily Mail reports.
Emergency teams began digging in a race-against-the-clock rescue mission after Rayan Awram fell into a 105ft shaft outside his home in Ighran village, in the northern province of Chefchaouen, last Tuesday
On Saturday rescuers and resuscitation experts finally reached the boy, offering a faint glimmer of hope that he might have survived the ordeal.
However, government officials confirmed the young boy could not be resuscitated, adding that he had died before rescuers could reach him.
Today mourners climbed the hilly, unpaved road leading to the cemetery in Ighran, near Chefchaouen in northern Morocco, where they waited for hours to observe the Muslim burial rituals.
The scenes come after footballer Abderrazak Hamdallah extended his ‘deepest condolences’ to Rayan’s family and offered to buy them a home.
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READ ALSO: Tragedy as trapped five-year-old Moroccan boy dies in well despite epic rescue operation
Earlier today two large tents were erected in front of the grieving family’s house where mourners could stop to offer condolences as hundreds of people made their way to the cemetery.
One villager said: ‘I am over 50-years-old and have never seen as many people in a funeral. Rayan is the son of us all.’
Another villager said: ‘Rayan’s death has renewed faith in humanity as people in different languages and from different countries express solidarity.’
‘I am very sad. We spared no effort to reach the boy alive. We excavated around the clock in five days what could have taken weeks,’ a volunteer digger, Ali Sahraoui, told reporters at the funeral.
Yesterday Moroccan international footballer Abderrazak Hamdallah, 31, who plays for Al-Ittihad, extended his ‘deepest condolences’ to Rayan’s family and offered to buy them a house ‘to help and bring a little joy’.
In a message on Instagram, the striker wrote: ‘We have gone through five very remote days and our hearts were snatched from us, Moroccans, all Arabs and Muslims, and even the whole world.
‘We praised and thanked God for everything that Rayan took, and he was more merciful to us and more deserving of it than us.
‘With this affliction, I extend my deepest condolences to Rayan’s family, and I ask God to grant them patience and solace.
‘And I have decided, in my name and my family’s name, and in the name of all Moroccans and Muslims, to help and bring a little joy to Rayan’s family, his parents, and his brothers and give them a fully equipped house. We ask God to accept us and make it in the balance of the good deeds of all Muslims.
‘This is help from a brother to you and God’s mercy.’
Tributes have flooded in from across the world for Rayan after rescue teams confirmed he had died.
Speaking after Rayan’s death was confirmed, his aunt, Atiqua Awram told local media: ‘My nephew, my heart is aching for him, too much. May God be with him, just like how God stood with us.’
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI sent his condolences to the Awram family and praised both the rescue crews and the local community for their valiant efforts over the past week.
And French President Emmanuel Macron added his voice to the tributes, writing in a Facebook message on Saturday: ‘Tonight, I want to tell the family of little Rayan and the Moroccan people that we share their pain.’
On Saturday, condolences to Rayan’s parents also came from Pope Francis and Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Egyptian and Senegalese football players held a minute of silence on Sunday before the kickoff of the final of the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament.
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