Morocco: little Rayan died despite rescue attempts – archyde

All the efforts of a country will not have been enough. little Ryan, stuck at the bottom of a well for five days in northern Morocco, is dead, the royal cabinet said in a statement on Saturday evening. A few minutes earlier, he had been extracted by rescuers from the well in which he had fallen, not far from the locality of Bab Berred, in the province of Chefchaouen.

“Following the tragic accident which cost the life of the child Rayan Oram, His Majesty King Mohammed VI called the parents of the deceased, who died after falling into a well”, specifies a press release from the royal palace in Arabic.

Journalists saw the father and mother, faces defeated, enter a tunnel dug by rescuers and communicating with the well, from which the child was later released. They came out shortly after and drove off in an ambulance, without saying a word, the mother riding up front, her eyes staring into space. After a moment of confusion, the crowd, gathered for days around the theater of operations, dispersed in mournful silence.

The date of the funeral has not been announced by the family, but according to Muslim tradition it should take place quickly, in principle this Sunday.

An extremely complicated rescue mission

The boy had accidentally fallen into this dry well 32 m deep, narrow and difficult to access, dug near the family residence in a village. Since then, the whole country was holding its breath and the rescuers were busy trying to save him. Rescuers advanced very slowly on Saturday through the tunnel leading to the pocket where the little boy was.

The operations proved to be particularly difficult due to the diameter of the well, estimated at 45 cm. Drilling work had been launched reaching 27 m on Thursday evening. A horizontal gap of 3 m was then dug between the hole and the well to recover the child.