Rescuers are working on Friday, for the fourth consecutive day, in the hope of extracting alive little Rayan, a five-year-old boy who fell into a deep well in a village in Morocco and whose fate has sparked a wave of solidarity. across the kingdom.
The ballet of mechanical machines deployed to clear the ground around the 32-meter-deep well did not stop all night in a village near the town of Bab Berred in the province of Chefchaouen (north), noted AFP .
• Read also: The fate of a child stuck in a well holds Morocco in suspense
According to local authorities, the bulldozers have already dug up to 28 meters deep and preparations are underway to dig a horizontal gap of a few meters towards the well to reach the small Rayan.
But the phase is delicate given the risk of landslide, they added.
The operation is very complex due to the nature of the soil, as some layers are sandy and others rocky.
AFP
The boy, whose fate is moving the whole country and beyond, accidentally fell on Tuesday followingnoon into the dry well, narrow and difficult to access, dug near the family residence in the village of Ighrane.
For the moment, it is not known if he is still alive, but water and oxygen have been brought to him to the bottom of the cramped well.
“Rayan was playing next door, but he disappeared (Tuesday) around 2:00 p.m. The whole family mobilized to look for him until we learned that he fell into the well, ”told the mother of the child to the local press, her eyes misty with tears.
“I still hold out hope that they will bring my son back alive.”
A medical team was dispatched to the scene to “carry out initial examinations and resuscitation interventions for the child once rescued”, according to the MAP news agency.
A medical helicopter is ready to take care of it.
“Our hearts are with the family and we pray to God that he finds his loved ones as soon as possible,” said government spokesman Mustapha Baitas.
Several scenarios have been studied to save little Rayan.
AFP
At first, the rescue teams tried to descend directly into the well, an operation aborted because its diameter does not exceed 45 centimeters.
They thought of widening the diameter of the well, once more without success because of the nature of the soil which might lead to a landslide.
Only solution: dig around the well.
This tragedy has generated a lot of sympathy and solidarity on social networks.
The rescuers are supported by a team of topographers.
AFP
This Friday morning, the live broadcasts of several Moroccan media continue to drain hundreds of thousands of Internet users, hanging on to the fate of the child.
“Hold on little Rayan, hold on please,” implores a surfer on Twitter.
Moreover, the hashtag #sauvezrayan (in Arabic) is among the main trends of Twitter in Morocco for the second consecutive day.
In addition, there are also many local residents at the accident site, which sometimes hinders the work of the rescue teams.
AFP
This accident echoes a tragedy that occurred in early 2019 in Spain. In Andalusia, a 2-year-old child died following falling into an abandoned well 25 centimeters in diameter and more than 100 meters deep dug to find water.
The body of little Julen was found following thirteen days of research on an exceptional scale.
