IGHRANE (Maroc, Morocco), Feb 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Morocco was in shock Sunday after emergency crews found a five-year-old boy dead at the bottom of a well in a tragic end to a painstaking five-day rescue operation that gripped the nation and the world.
The ordeal of “little Rayan” since he fell down the well on Tuesday afternoon gained global attention and sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan trending.
Throughout the operation to extricate him from the bottom of the 32-metre (100-foot) well shaft, authorities had cautioned that they did not know whether he was alive.
And reflecting the emotions provoked by the drama, it was Morocco’s royal cabinet that announced he had been found dead.
“Following the tragic accident which cost the life of the child Rayan Oram, His Majesty King Mohammed VI called the parents of the boy who died after falling down the well,” a statement from the royal court said.
After a period of confusion, a crowd of onlookers began dispersing in sombre silence.
The family was yet to announce the date of the funeral, but according to Muslim tradition it must take place soon, in principle as early as Sunday.
Tributes poured in in the wake of the news that the rescue efforts had failed to recover Rayan alive.
“I want to say to the family of little Rayan and to the Moroccan people that we share your pain,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Facebook.
“Rayan’s courage will stay in our memories and continue to inspire us,” wrote AC Milan’s Algerian midfielder Ismael Bennacer in a tweet accompanied by a drawing of a child being lifted into the sky, carried by a heart-shaped
balloon marked with the colours of Morocco.
“We all of us had been holding out hope that little Rayan would make it,” Moroccan-American novelist Laila Lalami wrote on Twitter. “This is all so tragic.” — NNN-AGENCIES
