Tunnels dug in search for child who fell into well

More than four days have passed since 2-year-old Julen Rosello slipped into a hole in the Spanish countryside, falling more than 30 stories and igniting a search-and-rescue effort that has consumed the country of 46 million people.

The boy’s parents said they heard the toddler’s echoing cries as he plummeted into darkness. The tragedy happened as the family of three — Julen, and his parents, Jos Rosello and Vicky Garca — was setting up for a paella picnic in Totalan, a small town on the southern coast of Spain, according to Britain’s Daily Express.

Since then, there has been nothing but agonising silence. A growing team of rescuers — including experts who have helped retrieve trapped miners — has worked around the clock to find Julen, fighting difficult terrain, bad weather and, most of all, time.

The boy’s father told reporters he was hoping against hope that Julen would be found alive.

“We’re dead inside but with the hope we have an angel watching over us who is going to help him to come out alive as soon as possible,” Jos Rosello said, according to the Daily Mail.

Yesterday, rescue teams began digging two tunnels, one vertical and another horizontal relative to the existing borehole where Julen is thought to be trapped, El Pais reported.

“The main thing is to reach the spot as soon as possible, via either one of the options,” engineer Juan Lpez Escobar told reporters, according to the Spanish newspaper.

Escobar estimated such a project would usually take a month, but that all typical time frames had been thrown out the window because of the uniquely urgent situation.

“We’re working to do it as soon as possible because of the health of the child,” he said, according to the Guardian.

Joining Guardia Civil, Spain’s national police force, are mine rescue experts from a region in northwest Spain, as well as Swedish experts who helped rescue 33 trapped Chilean miners in 2010, the newspaper reported.

Julen fell into a possibly unmarked hole bored by someone searching for a spot to dig a well, authorities have said. The hole is 110m deep, but only 38cm at its widest spot — big enough for a toddler to slip into, but not his parents or rescuers racing against a ticking clock.