TRAGEDY OF BOY IN WELL
Agony after lad, 5, is brought back up from 100ft hole in the ground
A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy trapped in a well has died, sending a nation into mourning.
Rayan Awram had been stuck for five days after falling 100ft down the narrow shaft in Morocco.
Rescuers who hoped he might still be clinging to life finally retrieved his body late last night.
They had tunnelled for 24 hours a day in a bid to reach the boy after fears the shaft could collapse.
Video footage had showed Rayan apparently conscious but exhausted, having suffered head injuries.
At one point the boy was seen raising his head towards a rope in front of him. But he had been trapped underground for nearly a week in the bitterly cold mountains of northern Morocco.
Government officials said King Mohammed had sent condolences to Rayan’s parents.
Prayers
Earlier, the boy’s tearful mother, Wassima Kharchich, had said: “I pray and beg God that he comes out of that well alive and safe.
“The whole family went out to look for him. Then we realised that he’d fallen down the well.”
Rayan’s father Khalid Agoram said he had been repairing the well when his son fell through a 45cm-wide opening on Tuesday.
He said: “In that one moment I took my eyes off him, the little one fell into the well. I haven’t slept a wink.”
The massive rescue effort gripped the world.
And thousands of people – including some camping in tents – had been keeping a vigil at the site, near the village of Ighara in the hills near Chefchaouen.
Many recited prayers and sang religious songs while others cheered on the rescue team.
To get to Rayan, they had to remove much of the adjacent hillside and delicately tunnel a horizontal passage into the well.
Chief rescuer Abdelhadi Tamrani
explained earlier: “It is not possible to determine the child’s condition, but we hope to God he is alive.”
Engineers had been working day and night to get to Rayan but downed tools on Friday after concerns their efforts could cause a landslide, burying the lad. The narrowness of the well shaft also hampered the operation. Several attempts by local volunteers and rescue workers to gain access through the opening failed.
One, caver Mohamed Yassin El Quahabi, explained: “The hole diameter is very, very small – about 25cm. At the depth of 28m, it became smaller so we couldn’t reach him.”
Widening the well was deemed too dangerous because of the rocky, sandy soil so workers used bulldozers to cut a trench nearby. They then dug horizontally to reach the boy.
Food and water were sent down, as well as an oxygen mask, but it is not known if Rayan used them.
At one point, rescuers attached a mobile phone to a rope and lowered it to try and communicate with him and film his surroundings.
Earlier, one rescuer, Abdesalam
Makoudi, said: “We’ve been working non-stop and tiredness is kicking in.”
Thousands sent messages of hope online, including Manchester City and Algeria midfielder Riyad Mahrez.
Moroccan footballer and Paris Saintgermain star Achraf Hakimi also hailed the rescue efforts, alongside emojis of a broken heart and hands together in prayer.