3 yıl önce

Afghan boy trapped in well for three days dies

Rescuers had been desperately scrambling to reach five-year-old boy Haider who had slipped to the bottom of a well in a southern Afghan village.

AFP

The operation in Shokak village, Zabul province comes around two weeks after a similar attempt to rescue a boy from a Moroccan well.

A five-year-old boy trapped for three days down a well in a remote Afghan village has died.

Rescuers worked non-stop to try to reach the boy, who officials said was still alive on Friday morning – before later announcing he had died.

"With great sorrow, young Haider is separated from us forever," said Taliban interior ministry senior adviser Anas Haqqani on Friday, in a tweet echoed by several of his colleagues.

Rescuers were desperately scrambling on Thursday night to reach the five-year-old boy trapped for two days down a well in a remote southern Afghan village.

Officials from the Taliban's newly installed government were overseeing rescue operations watched by hundreds of curious villagers.

The operation in Shokak village, Zabul province comes around two weeks after a similar attempt to rescue a boy from a Moroccan well gripped the world, but also ended with the child found dead.

Tragic incident

A video shared earlier on social media – including by Taliban officials – showed Haider, wedged in the well but able to move his arms and upper body.

"Are you okay my son?" his father can be heard saying.

"Talk with me and don't cry, we are working to get you out."

"Okay, I'll keep talking," the boy replies in a plaintive voice.

The video was obtained by rescuers lowering a light and a camera down the narrow well by rope.

The boy's grandfather, 50-year-old Haji Abdul Hadi, told the AFP news agency earlier that Haider fell down the well when he was trying to "help" the adults dig a new borehole in the drought-ravaged village.

"I said 'no, not him'," Hadi said.

"One of the wells was open... (then) the boy fell down. He was yelling and yelling."

Hadi added that food and water were passed down to his grandson via a bucket attached to a rope.

"We gave him cake and water... he was eating them all," he said.

Haider slipped to the bottom of a well being dug in the parched village in the province, around 400 kilometres southwest of the capital Kabul on Tuesday.

SOURCE: AFP