Boy rescued from deep well has died, says Morocco’s king

A tractor digs through a mountain during the rescue mission. Picture: AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy

Morocco’s king has said the five-year-old boy who was trapped in a well for four days has died.

On Saturday, rescuers pulled the boy out of the deep well where he had been trapped.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the boy wrapped in a yellow blanket after he emerged from a tunnel dug specifically for the rescue.

His parents had been escorted to an ambulance before the boy, Rayan, emerged.

King Mohammed VI expressed his condolences to the boy’s parents in a statement released by the Moroccan royal palace.

Rayan fell into a 105ft well located outside his home in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s northern Chefchaouen province on Tuesday evening.

He was trapped in a hole too narrow for rescuers to reach safely.

For three days, search crews used bulldozers to dig a parallel ditch. Then on Friday, they started excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy.

Morocco’s MAP news agency said that experts in topographical engineering were called upon for help.

His distraught parents were joined by hundreds of villagers and others who gathered to watch the rescue operation.

The village of about 500 people is dotted with deep wells, many used for irrigating the cannabis crop that is the main source of income for many in the poor, remote and arid region of Morocco’s Rif Mountains.

Most of the wells have protective covers.

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.