JUntil the end, the world remained suspended on the news from Morocco, hoping for a miracle. Saturday February 5, at the end of the day, joy exploded for a time, when the rescuers finally managed to extract the little Rayan, five years old, from the dry well of 32 meters in which he had fallen on Tuesday February 2.
Alas, as the King of Morocco announced in the evening, it was a lifeless body that Moroccan firefighters brought out on Saturday, before rushing it into an ambulance. It was finally the royal press release that tragically put an end to the suspense: “Following the tragic accident which cost the life of the child Rayan Oram, His Majesty King Mohammed VI called the parents of the deceased, who died after being fell into a well. »
Race against time
The race against the clock carried out for five days by the rescuers had been followed live by many Internet users, and on Saturday evening tributes poured in on social networks from all over the world, from the Maghreb to Iraq, Yemen , in France or in the United States, in all languages.
“Rayan’s courage will be remembered and will continue to inspire us. The dedication of the Moroccan people and the rescue workers as well,” wrote AC Milan’s Algerian international Ismaël Bennacer, in a tweet accompanied by a drawing of a child rising in the sky hanging from a heart-shaped balloon in the colors of Morocco. Morocco.
Rayan’s courage will be remembered and will continue to inspire us.
The dedication of the Moroccan people and of the rescuers as well.
Huge thoughts to parents and loved ones. May Allah grant this warrior the highest degree of paradise. ���� pic.twitter.com/Bl4PEODUy6
— Ismael Bennacer (@IsmaelBennacer) February 5, 2022
“We had all kept hope that little Rayan would come out of it. All this is so tragic”, also reacted on Twitter the Moroccan-American novelist Laila Lalami, while French President Emmanuel Macron said on Facebook “to the family of little Rayan and to the Moroccan people that we share their pain”.
Centimeter by centimeter
It took five days for rescuers to reach the child, as they first had to drill a huge deep crevasse and then a horizontal tunnel. Their progress was greatly slowed down by the nature of the soil, some layers being rocky and others very sandy.
Rayan had accidentally fallen into the 32-meter dry well, narrow and difficult to access, dug near the family residence in the village of Ighrane, in the province of Chefchaouen, in the north of the kingdom. Entering a horizontal breach on Saturday afternoon, the rescuers had continued their work centimeter by centimeter, digging by hand to avoid any landslide.
Saturday morning, a chief rescuer Abdelhadi Tamrani had indicated that images sent by an inspection camera showed the child “lying on his side, from behind” and that it was “impossible to say” if he was alive. But the manager had assured to keep “very high hopes” that he was alive. The rescuers had tried to send oxygen and water through tubes and bottles down to Rayan, without certainty that he could use them. Thousands of sympathizers had rushed as a sign of solidarity and camped on the spot, in this mountainous area of the Rif, at nearly 700 meters above sea level.
Digging with hands
In front of the tunnel, loud applause greeted each appearance of the drillers, including the volunteer Ali Sahraoui who dug with his hands in the last meters, a fifty-something who has become a “hero” on social networks. Metal barriers had to be placed on Friday to contain the crowd. As the outcome approached, the curious regularly chanted “Allah Akbar” (God is the greatest) or sang religious songs.
Shortly before 10 p.m. (9 p.m. GMT) on Saturday, journalists from Agence France Presse had seen the father and mother, faces defeated, enter a tunnel dug by rescuers and communicating with the well, from where was subsequently released the child. They came out shortly afterwards and left in an ambulance, without saying a word, the mother riding up front, her eyes lost in space. After a moment of confusion, the crowd, gathered for days, then dispersed in a mournful silence, noted Agence France Presse. The date of the funeral has not been announced by the family, but according to Muslim tradition it should take place quickly, in principle on Sunday.
This accident echoes a tragedy that occurred in early 2019 in Andalusia (Spain), where two-year-old Julen died after falling into a well 25 centimeters in diameter and more than 100 meters deep. His body was found after 13 days of research on an exceptional scale.