If the rescuers reached Friday morning the child, who had slipped to the bottom of this earthen pit in the village of Shokak, located in the province of Zabul, about 400 km south-west of the capital Kabul, the boy is died shortly after extraction.
The five-year-old boy trapped since Tuesday in a deep dry well in southeastern Afghanistan has died, several Taliban officials said on Friday. The child, named Haidar, “has left us forever,” tweeted Anas Haqqani, senior adviser to the Interior Ministry. “This is another day of mourning and grief for our country,” he added. Haidar “is no longer with us”, confirmed, also on Twitter, Abdullah Azzam, secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Rescuers reached Friday morning the child, who had slipped to the bottom of this earthen pit in the village of Shokak, located in the province of Zabul, about 400 km southwest of the capital Kabul. He was still alive when they arrived by his side, but his situation was “not good” and he had to “be treated on the spot”, had previously indicated Ahmadullah Wasiq, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban government.
The accident was reminiscent of that in early February in Morocco of little Rayan, 5, who fell to the bottom of a dry well and was found lifeless after five days of relentless efforts by rescuers. The tragedy had caused considerable emotion, amplified by social networks, in Morocco and around the world.
Haidar’s grandfather, Haji Abdul Hadi, 50, told AFP that he had fallen into the cavity while trying to “help” adults drill a new well in the drought-ravaged village.
According to official sources, the child slipped into this 25m deep hole, before being pulled with the help of a rope to a depth of about ten meters, where he found himself stuck .
Rescuers opened a large oblique trench in the earth with diggers to access where he was stuck. But, forced to proceed with caution as they approached the shaft, they were then slowed in their efforts by the rocky terrain.
In video: on-site rescue operations
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