Ighrane, Morocco:
Moroccan emergency services found a five-year-old boy dead at the bottom of a well late Saturday in a tragic end to a grueling five-day rescue operation that gripped the country and beyond.
“Following the tragic accident that killed the child Rayan Oram, His Majesty King Mohammed VI has called the parents of the boy who died after falling into the well,” the royal court said in a statement.
During the days-long operation to retrieve little Rayan from the bottom of the 32-meter well shaft, authorities had warned that they did not know whether the child was dead or alive.
But the news of his death sent a chill through the cold mountain air of his native village of Ighrane in the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco, where thousands of volunteers and benefactors had gathered this week to show solidarity with his family.
It was well after dark when rescue teams finally broke through to the well shaft where the boy was trapped, from the deep cut in the mountainside they’d excavated over the past few days.
AFP correspondents saw the boy’s parents walk down the slope, visibly crushed, before returning and getting into an ambulance without saying a word.
After a period of confusion, the crowd of onlookers began to disperse in gloomy silence.
There was no official word on the boy’s condition until Moroccan media published the palace statement.
The boy’s ordeal since falling into the pit on Tuesday afternoon had gripped residents of the North African kingdom and beyond, as well as sparking sympathy in neighboring Algeria, a regional rival.
By mid-afternoon Saturday, rescue teams, using bulldozers and front loaders, had excavated the surrounding red earth to the level where the boy was trapped, and drill teams began work excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach him from the side.
But progress slowed to a snail’s pace as the drill teams worked by hand to avoid vibrations that the brittle soil could bring on the affected child, local authorities said.
The more time passed, the more fears about Rayan’s condition increased.
Rescuers did not give up hope of finding the child alive, although officials admitted they had no clear evidence of his condition.
Bystanders applauded to encourage the rescuers, chanted religious songs or prayed as they chanted “Allahu akbar” (God is the greatest) in unison.
Rescuers had tried to get oxygen and water to the child, but it was not clear if he could use them, AFP correspondents reported.
‘Show togetherness’
Thousands of people had gathered in recent days and even camped in solidarity around the site, where AFP reporters said the tension was palpable.
“We show solidarity with this child, who is dear to Morocco and the whole world,” said spectator Hafid El-Azzouz, who lives in the region.
The shaft, only 45 centimeters (18 in) wide, was too narrow to reach Rayan, and widening it was considered too risky – so earth-moving machines dug a wide slope into the mound to reach it from the side.
The operation made the landscape resemble a construction site.
Civil defense personnel in red helmets were sometimes suspended from a rope, as if on a rock face.
At night, they worked non-stop under powerful floodlights which gave a gloomy atmosphere to the scene.
“I keep hoping that my child will come out of the pit alive,” Rayan’s father told 2M public television on Friday evening. “I thank all those involved and those who support us in Morocco and elsewhere.”
He said earlier in the week that he was repairing the well when the boy fell in.
The drama sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the trending Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan.
A Twitter user paid tribute to rescuers who worked around the clock for days, saying “they are real heroes”.
Police fortifications were deployed and metal barricades erected to prevent a swarm of spectators from hindering rescuers.
The boy’s ordeal echoed a tragedy in Spain in early 2019 when a two-year-old child died after falling into an abandoned pit 25 centimeters wide and more than 70 meters deep.
Julen Rosello’s body was recovered after a 13-day search and rescue operation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)