PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has conveyed his condolences to the family of five-year-old boy Rayan Oram, who died after he was trapped for five days in a well in Morocco.
Ismail Sabri said it was absolutely heartbreaking to learn about Rayan’s tragic death, which was confirmed by the Royal Palace of Morocco.
“The five-year-old was trapped in a 32m-deep well for five days in his village of Ighran, located in the hills near Chefchaouen, northern Morocco.
“The entire Malaysia Family and I extend our sincere and heartfelt condolences to Rayan’s family.
“May Allah SWT grant him the highest rank of Jannah. Al-fatihah,” he tweeted on Sunday (Feb 6).
Rayan was trapped in a well in northern Moroccan for five days before rescuers were able to reach him late on Saturday (Feb 5) and retrieve his body, Reuters reported.
Footage posted on social media showed the scene after his body was recovered, with hundreds of distraught rescue workers and onlookers gathered at the site chanting prayers and shining the flashlights of their phones into the air.
Rescuers finally reached him late on Saturday after removing much of the adjacent hillside and delicately tunnelling a horizontal passage into the well.
The well was only 45cm wide at the top and tapered as it dropped 32m to the bottom where Rayan was trapped, making it impossible for rescuers to descend directly.
The hilly region around Chefchaouen is bitterly cold in winter and rescuers attempted to keep the boy alive by lowering food, water and oxygen through a tube.
Rescuers worked round the clock cutting a massive trench through the hillside, then tunnelling horizontally towards Rayan, with a constant risk of triggering landslides.
In the final hours of the rescue effort, workers had to move with extreme caution as they attempted to dig through earth and rocks to where Rayan lay.
They were eventually able to access the well late on Saturday, and carried his body to a waiting ambulance.
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Rescue workers carry 5-year-old child, Rayan Awram, who has been trapped for five days in a well, to an ambulance, during a rescue operation near Chefchaouen, northern Morocco February 5, 2022, February 5, 2022. REUTERS/Thami Nouas
Moroccan emergency services teams work on the rescue of five-year-old boy Rayan from a well shaft he fell into on February 1, in the remote village of Ighrane in the rural northern province of Chefchaouen on February 5, 2022. - Moroccan rescuers worked through the night, the fifth day of an increasingly urgent and nerve-wracking effort to rescue Rayan, a five-year-old boy trapped underground in a well. (Photo by Fadel SENNA / AFP)
Moroccan authorities and firefighters work to rescue five-year-old boy Rayan, who is trapped in a deep well for over two days, near Bab Berred in Morocco's rural northern province of Chefchaouen on February 3, 2022. - Moroccans waited anxiously as authorities said a dramatic operation to rescue a young boy trapped in a deep well for more than 40 hours was nearing its end. (Photo by AFP)
