After 5 days in the darkness of the well and worldwide anticipation, Moroccan television announced today, Saturday, the death of the child Rayan, who fell into a well in the city of Chefchaouen in the north of the country.
And the television quoted an official statement from the Moroccan Royal Court as saying, "Following the tragic accident that claimed the life of the child Rayan Oram, King Mohammed VI made a phone call with Mr. Khaled Oram and Mrs. Wassima Kherchich, the parents of the deceased, who passed away."
The statement added that the Moroccan monarch expressed "his deepest condolences and sincerest sympathy to all members of the family of the deceased in this painful affliction."
It is noteworthy that the 5-year-old child accidentally fell on Tuesday afternoon in this well of narrow diameter and difficult to descend into, in a village in the Bab Bard region near the city of Chefchaouen (North).
The five-year-old child, Tuesday, fell into a well next to the family home in the village of Igran, near the city of Chefchaouen (north), in an accident, according to local media. Since Wednesday, his tragedy has aroused widespread interest and sympathy in Morocco, the Arab world and beyond.
While hopes remained to get him out alive, they waned over time, as rescue teams began a complex process since Wednesday to reach him and encountered several difficulties, according to what the local authorities explained over the past days.
His parents also remained hopeful that they would meet him alive, according to what was reported by local media on Friday.
On Saturday afternoon, ambulance teams were able to enter the tunnel, which was built in a complex operation, in the hope of saving the child, accompanied by a medical team, and anticipation remained dominant until his death was announced at night.
It was not possible until that moment to "be certain about the health condition" of the child, according to what the official in the Rescue Committee, Abdul Hadi Al-Thamrani told AFP, noting that the camera installed above the well was "showing him lying on his side, we only see his back." .
Rescue teams have been providing him with water and oxygen in recent days, but they have not been sure that he has used them, according to AFP correspondents.
It was believed Friday that the process is nearing its end. But the work slowed down, and rescuers resorted to manual digging last night due to fears of a landslide, and after they encountered a rock that "delayed us a lot" at dawn on Saturday, according to Al-Thamrani, who also referred to fears "of the well collapsing."
Civil protection teams got rid of the rock after three hours, using small electrical tools, to avoid creating cracks that could lead to a collapse around the well.
It also worked on digging a horizontal tunnel extending approximately three meters in the hope of penetrating it to get the child out, after a technical study by topographical engineers and civil protection specialists of the nature of the soil in order to secure its sides.
Many people remained gathered in the vicinity of the site, while the security forces that reinforced their deployment in the place set up barriers to prevent them from hampering the efforts of the rescue teams.