First picture of boy who died after being trapped in well for four days
This is the first picture of a boy who died in Morocco after falling down a well.
The saga, which captured the attention of the African nation and the world, ended in tragedy despite Rayan Awram being pulled to safety.
The child was rescued on Saturday after a lengthy operation which began when he became trapped on Tuesday.
But the Moroccan royal palace later announced that the youngster had died despite the efforts of rescuers.
King Mohammed VI expressed his condolences to the boy’s parents in a statement released by the palace.
Rayan can be seen smiling in a Nike hoody in the picture, while his parents were also seen holding each other at the scene of the rescue.
The boy was carried from a tunnel dug specifically for the rescue and wrapped in a yellow blanket.
His parents had been escorted to an ambulance before the boy came out – and it is unclear if he was alive when he emerged.
Rayan fell into a 105ft well outside his home in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s mountainous northern Chefchaouen province on Tuesday.
He was trapped in a hole too narrow for rescuers to reach safely.
For three days, search crews used bulldozers to dig a parallel ditch. Then on Friday, they started excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy.
Morocco’s MAP news agency reported that experts in topographical engineering were asked to help.
Rayan’s distraught parents were joined by hundreds of villagers and well-wishers who gathered to watch the rescue operation.
The village of about 500 people is punctuated by deep wells, many used for irrigating the cannabis crop that is the main source of income for many in the poor, remote and arid region of Morocco’s Rif Mountains.
Most of the wells have protective covers.
Moroccans used social media to offer their hopes for the boy’s survival, using #SaveRayan to draw attention to the rescue efforts.
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