Rescuers less than 3 feet away from boy trapped in well in ‘final stage’ of mission gripping Morocco
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Rescuers are less than three feet from a boy stuck in a 100-foot well in Morocco, after tunneling toward the 5-year-old in an operation that has transfixed the country and its North African neighbors for days.
On Saturday afternoon, members of the emergency team were in what Moroccan state TV channel 2M described as “the final stage” of a mission that has involved first responders, topographical engineers and bulldozers.
While the boy’s condition was unclear, the team has remained hopeful of getting Rayan out alive. “It’s hard to determine his condition … but there is great, great hope,” said team member Abdelhadi Tamarani.
For four days, the team has worked around-the-clock to safely retrieve Rayan, who fell into a dry well and became trapped between its narrow walls, in a village in northern Morocco. The dramatic race to save him has gripped Morocco and neighboring countries, with crowds gathering to join his parents and broadcasters live-streaming the efforts.
The last few feet may be the hardest, with the nerve-racking prospect of a wall collapsing or shaking soil threatening days of delicate work. Messages of support have poured in on social media, where the hashtag #SaveRayan has become a rallying cry.
Rescuers, who had used rope to send oxygen down to the child and a camera to monitor him, said it was difficult to tell how much longer it would take as they evaluated how to descend toward him. The camera showed the boy lying on his side facing a wall, making it hard to determine how he was doing, Tamarani said.
The team had drilled overnight to create a parallel tunnel. They were manually chipping away the final stretch, local media said.
An ambulance, a helicopter and medics waited at the site to take the boy to a hospital once he is retrieved.
WASHINGTON POST
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