RABAT (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The royal palace in Morocco has confirmed that a five-year-old child who was stranded for four days in a deep well and whose suffering captivated Moroccans has died.
Rayan Awram, a young child from Ighrane, plunged 32 metres (100 feet) into an empty shaft on Tuesday afternoonSince then, every detail of the complex and risky effort to get him has made international news and sparked an outpouring of grief online, with the hashtag #SaveRayan (Arabic version) going viral on social media.
The pit was too narrow for rescuers to reach Rayan, measuring 45cm (18 inches) broad, and enlarging it was deemed too dangerous. Instead, massive diggers were used to cut a slope so that the youngster could be approached from the side.
Authorities decided to dig by hand in the final phases, with crews reported to be only three metres away from the boy, to avoid a landslide of the stony, sandy ground. For the final stretch, large round concrete pipes were hauled in to provide a safer, horizontal tunnel.
However, after the boy’s body was dragged out by rescuers and transported away covered in a yellow blanket on Saturday night, Moroccan King Mohammed VI extended his condolences to his parents.
Khaled Oram and Wassima Khersheesh, his parents, had been brought to an ambulance closeby.
The king had been carefully watching the frantic rescue operations by local authorities, according to the palace statement, and had “instructed officials to employ all measures necessary to dig the youngster out of the well and return him alive to his parents.”
The king praised the rescuers’ tireless efforts and the community’s support for Rayan’s family. Hundreds of villagers and others had gathered to witness the rescue effort.
A rope was used to deliver oxygen and drink to the boy, as well as a camera to keep an eye on him.
On Tuesday evening, Rayan fell into the well outside his home in the Ighran village in Morocco’s hilly northern Chefchaouen province.
Bulldozers were utilised for three days to dig a parallel ditch. They then began digging a horizontal tunnel to reach the stranded kid on Friday. Experts in topographical engineering were approached, according to Morocco’s MAP news agency.
The community of approximately 500 inhabitants is dotted with deep wells, many of which are used to irrigate the cannabis crop, which is the major source of income for many in Morocco’s Rif Mountains’ poor, remote, and dry region. The majority of the wells have covers for protection.
The circumstances behind the boy’s fall into the well are unknown. Rayan had been playing nearby before he vanished, according to the boy’s mother, who informed Moroccan media.
