(Ighrane) Rescuers entered the tunnel on Saturday afternoon that leads to the pocket where 5-year-old Rayan is, whom they hope to find alive five days after his fall into a deep well in Morocco.
Posted at 11:56
They are accompanied by a medical team but it was not possible to know immediately when they will come out, according to AFP journalists on the spot.
At the entrance to the tunnel, a group of firefighters is ready, as well as an ambulance, to intervene. The boy’s parents are inside the ambulance. A medical helicopter is also on standby. Other firefighters transported equipment, including medical equipment, inside the tunnel.
On the last images sent by an inspection camera, the boy “appeared lying on his side, from behind” but it is “impossible to say that he is alive with certainty”, explained in the morning to the AFP a chief rescuer, Abdelhadi Tamrani.
The official, however, kept “very high hopes” of extracting him alive from this narrow and deep hole of 32 meters, dug near the family home in Ighrane, not far from the village of Bab Berred, in the province of Chefchaouen.
The rescuers tried to send oxygen and water through tubes and bottles down to Rayan, without certainty that he could have used them, according to AFP journalists.
The hand drilling of a horizontal tunnel of a few meters has progressed at a brisk pace in this poor locality in northern Morocco, the main challenge being to avoid landslides.
A risk due to the nature of the ground at the site of the incident, some areas being rocky, others very sandy.
Thousands of supporters have flocked in recent days, some from afar, as a sign of solidarity, and camped there despite the cold, in this mountainous area of the Rif, nearly 700 meters above sea level.
Metal barriers have been set up since Friday to contain the crowd.
“Real Life Heroes”
As the outcome approaches, onlookers chant in chorus “Allah Akbar” (God is the greatest). People clap to encourage rescuers or sing religious songs in honor of the Prophet Muhammad.
“We stand in solidarity with this child, beloved in Morocco and around the world, we hope, by the will of God, that he will come out (of the well),” said Hafid El Azzouz, a resident of the region.
“I remain hopeful that my child will come out of this well alive,” Rayan’s father said Friday evening on public television 2m, thanking “all the people mobilized and those who support us in Morocco and elsewhere. »
Rayan’s fate has aroused a lot of sympathy on social networks around the world, from the Maghreb to Iraq, Yemen, Canada or the United States, in all languages.
“Millions of people around the world are holding their breath in the race against time to save Rayan,” one Twitter user commented.
Another raises his hat to the rescuers who have been fighting for five days, tirelessly, to save the little one: “They are the heroes of real life. When your own life doesn’t matter in front of a noble cause. Keep it up guys, the whole world is counting on you”.
“Rayan in the arms of his parents”
The hashtag #sauvezrayan continued to top the main Twitter trends in Morocco on Saturday.
“I look forward to the moment when I read the tweet that will say that #Rayan is in the arms of his parents”, hopes a surfer on Twitter.
“Our hearts are with the family and we pray to God that he finds his loved ones as soon as possible”, assured the government spokesman, Mustapha Baitas, urging the curious “to let the rescuers work to save this child”.
This accident echoes a tragedy that occurred in early 2019 in Andalusia (Spain), where a two-year-old child died after falling into a well 25 centimeters in diameter and more than 100 meters deep.
The body of little Julen had been found after 13 days of research on an exceptional scale.