Rescue with a sad end
Little Rayan dies after days in deep well in Morocco
Rescue workers place the body of five-year-old Rayan in an ambulance. Photo: Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A young boy in Morocco was stuck for days at a depth of 32 meters after a fall. After a difficult rescue operation, the worst fears are now sad certainty.
Despite great efforts over the past few days, help for five-year-old Rayan in Morocco has not come in time.
The rescue team rescued the boy from the 32 meter deep well on Saturday evening, reported the Moroccan state news agency MAP. The boy was declared dead a short time later. King Mohammed VI I expressed my condolences to the parents in a telephone call, according to a statement from the royal family.
Television footage showed rescuers carrying the boy out of a rescue tunnel and into a waiting ambulance.
Fall into unsecured well
The boy fell into an unsecured well near his home in a village about 150 kilometers north of the city of Fez on Tuesday afternoon. Rayan’s family eventually heard his whimpering and lowered a phone down to him on a rope.
Helpers later also roped down a camera to check the boy’s health. Hoses should supply him with water and oxygen. Information on Rayan’s condition was last given on Thursday. But despite the slow progress of the rescue operation, many hoped for a miracle until the end.
Because of the small width of the shaft, helpers could not get the child back through the well themselves. Rescue workers therefore first removed the earth parallel to the shaft using heavy equipment. Specialists then dug a horizontal tunnel at a depth of around 32 meters to reach Rayan. The work was repeatedly interrupted. The rescuers feared that the shaft could collapse because of the ground conditions. A landslide and boulders also delayed the rescue work.
Onlookers at risk rescue
All over the world, people and families worried about the five-year-old. Onlookers who flocked to the scene of the accident in large numbers despite the cold also endangered the rescue operation.
Again and again children die in similar accidents. Almost a year ago, a ten-year-old boy died in Syria after falling into a well about 20 meters deep. Three years ago, helpers could only salvage a two-year-old dead from a shaft in Spain. Julen fell more than 70 meters into an illegally drilled well.