SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Moroccan royal palace says a 5-year-old boy who was trapped in a deep well for four days had died.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI expressed his condolences to the boy’s parents in a statement released by the palace, according to AP.
Rayan Awram, aged five, fell into the well at his village of Ighara in the hills near Chefchaouen on Tuesday, triggering a huge rescue effort that engrossed the country.
Rescuers managed to retrieve his body late on Saturday after removing much of the adjacent hillside and delicately tunneling a horizontal passage into the well.
Rescuers used a rope to send oxygen and water down to the boy as well as a camera to monitor him, AP reported.
By Saturday morning, the head of the rescue committee, Abdelhadi Temrani, said: “It is not possible to determine the child’s condition at all at this time. But we hope to God that the child is alive.”
