CAIRO — Rescuers who were racing on Saturday to free a boy trapped in a 100-foot well for four days in northern Morocco said they still held out great hopes of pulling him out alive, though they were not certain of his current condition.
Rescuers have been working day and night to tunnel toward the boy and said they were just a few feet away from reaching him. But rescuers, fearing that either the well or a parallel shaft that was dug to reach him would collapse at any moment, proceeded with extreme caution.
“It’s hard to know his status, but we have great, great, great hope,” said Abdelhadi Temrani, one of the rescuers, noting that the team was providing oxygen around the clock to the boy, Rayan, who is 5. They have also been monitoring him with a camera lowered into the well.
“There is an ambulance and helicopter waiting here to help at the right moment,” Mr. Temrani said. He said the camera showed the boy lying on his side, making it hard to discern his exact condition.
As nightfall began, crowds of people remained at the site, at times erupting into prayers and cheers, shouting, “Live, live, Rayan.” But there was a growing sense of uncertainty that the boy could still come out alive, with conflicting reports about the progress of the rescue operation.
Dozens of police officers lined both sides of a corridor to make way for the rescue and keep back the crowd. All of it was being live streamed, with many at home and abroad glued to their screens.
A state-run television channel posted a short video of the operation on Saturday, showing the workers digging through the tunnel. Officials said that 20 inches separated the rescuers from Rayan, and that they had confronted “big rocks” and areas where the soil collapsed. But they were still hoping to pull him out Saturday.
🔴 متر واحد و80 سنتمترا يفصل فريق الإنقاذ عن المكان الذي يتواجد به #الطفل_ريان حسب اخر معلومة وافانا بها موفدنا فؤاد عزوزي. العملية مستمرة.
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🔴Encore 1.8 mètre à creuser avant d’atteindre l’endroit du puits asséché où le petit #Rayan se trouve (journaliste 2M sur place) pic.twitter.com/xn6Liw6vLz
— 2M.ma (@2MInteractive) February 5, 2022
The operation to save the boy was in what rescuers described as the “decisive phase,” as Moroccans and others across North Africa breathlessly followed the rescue on live streams.
Rayan has been stuck in the well near his home in the tiny village of Ighrane, about 60 miles from the city of Chefchaouen, since Tuesday afternoon. Rescuers brought in bulldozers to dig a parallel shaft from which they could tunnel through to reach the child, but they…
Read More: Efforts to Rescue 5-Year-Old From Well in Morocco: Live Updates