Moroccan boy rescued from well dies

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Rayan, the five-year-old Moroccan boy who was trapped in a well for five days, died on Saturday night despite painstaking efforts to rescue him.

A statement from the Royal Palace announced his death soon after his removal from the well.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco offered condolences to Rayan's family in a phone call.

The team, accompanied by medical practitioners, worked day and night to rescue the boy, who fell about 32 meters down a narrow well near his home in a remote village in the northern African kingdom's Chefchaouen province.

On Tuesday afternoon, the child fell into the well and was discovered after he was heard crying, his mother said in an interview with state-owned Al-Aoula TV two days later. His father told the news channel that the authorities sent food and water down the well. Bulldozers dug nonstop to reach him. By Friday afternoon, there was still meters of dirt that had to be dug out to reach the trapped boy. 

The Twitter hashtag Save Rayan went viral in North Africa as the desperate mission continued. But this turned to heartbreak when the statement came announcing the boy's death.