Morocco Declines Spanish Aid in Rescue Effort for 5-Year-Old Trapped in Well

The team of Spanish firefighters who had rescued Julen, a young boy who died after falling into a well in Totalán (Málaga) in January 2019, offered to put their experience at Morocco’s service to save Rayan. But the Moroccan authorities declined the offer due to tensions between the two countries, according to NIUS.

Rayan fell on Tuesday into a dry 32-meter deep well with a diameter of 45 centimeters. The Moroccan government has deployed heavy resources on site to try to save the boy who is clinging to life thanks to the oxygen bottles lowered to the bottom of the well by the rescuers and the sweetened water he receives through tubes.

See: Rescuers Close to Saving 5-Year-Old Boy Trapped in Moroccan Well for Days

It is a race against time for the rescuers who, since Wednesday, have started digging a parallel hole to the well to save the child. On Friday, they were already 27 meters deep out of the 32 meters. Once this depth is reached, they will make a 3-meter horizontal breach to find the child’s position in the well.

In the case of Julen in Spain, the firefighters spent 13 days trying to save him. He had also fallen into a very narrow well in a mountainous region. The firefighters had called on their colleagues from Albacete and a company that provided a georadar to locate the exact place where Julen was in the well, 71 meters deep, under debris of stones and sand. According to the autopsy, he had died from "a violent blow to the head during his free fall".