Rescuers close in on Moroccan boy trapped in well

Moroccans have waited anxiously as rescuers with heavy diggers inched towards Rayan, a five-year-old boy trapped in a deep well for four days.

Authorities said on Friday they were in the final stages and were stabilising the earth in order to dig a three-metre tunnel to safely extract the boy, an operation made more complex by the mix of rocky and sandy layers and the risk of a landslide.

"We're almost there. We've been working non-stop for three days and tiredness is kicking in, but the whole rescue team is hanging on," said one of the operation's leaders, Abdesalam Makoudi.

Moroccan media reported that rescuers managed to deliver oxygen and water to the bottom of the well on Thursday, but authorities have not disclosed more information on the child's condition since.

The complex and dangerous operation has gripped residents of the North African kingdom and even in neighbouring Algeria, a regional rival.

Too narrow for rescuers

Rayan fell some 32 metres (100 feet) down the empty shaft in his village of Ighrane in Chefchaouen province on Tuesday afternoon.

The shaft, just 45 centimetres (18 inches) across, was too narrow for rescuers to reach him and widening it was deemed too risky, so earth-movers were deployed to dig a slope in the hope of reaching the boy from the side.

The machines had worked under floodlights throughout Thursday night, with excavations turning the landscape into a construction site of red earth in the forested countryside.

Horizontal shaft

On Friday, rescuers said they had dug down 28 meters and were preparing for a delicate operation to create a horizontal shaft to reach the boy.

"The child's rescue is approaching," government spokesman Mustapha Baitas said.

"Our hearts are with the family, and we are praying that he will back with them as soon as possible."

The boy's mother told Moroccan media that Rayan had been playing nearby when he disappeared on Tuesday afternoon.

"The whole family went out to look for him then we realised that he'd fallen down the well," she said with tears in her eyes.

"I'm still keeping up hope that we'll get him out alive."

The MAP news agency said medics were on site to check on the boy once he is extracted.

Authorities have also a helicopter on standby to take the child to hospital once he is extracted, national news channel 2M said. 

READ MORE: Morocco races against time to save boy trapped in well