After millions of people around the world have been waiting anxiously since Tuesday for the rescue of Ryan, the 5-year-old Moroccan boy who fell into a narrow well in the north of the kingdom and was left alone for four nights, tonight (Saturday) he was rescued from the well but later pronounced dead.
Ryan was trapped at the bottom of an abandoned well, at a depth of 32 meters, in the area of the town of Chapcheon.
The boy's condition became known only after the rescue team slid a camera rope to the bottom of the well, and he was documented sitting alone and suffering from a facial injury.
Ryan's story was soon published on social media and drew tens of thousands of responses from citizens, who called for making every effort to rescue him.
The affair also resonated in the Arab and international media, and surfers from all over the Middle East prayed for his safety.
Many countries in the region have expressed solidarity with the kingdom in its difficult time.
The ambulance that evacuated the boy Ryan // from social media
At the beginning of the rescue efforts, a young man from the area volunteered to descend the rope himself to rescue the boy, but his body was too wide to reach him in the narrow well.
Following this, bulldozers dug a tunnel from a horizontal direction to the bottom of the well.
At the same time, the staff made sure that the child drank water and ate the supplies transferred to him.
The operation lasted for dozens of hours, during which the rescue team encountered rocks and a pipe that interfered with the progress of the work.
On Saturday evening, fears arose that the excavated tunnel would collapse on its occupants, so it was decided to bring a metal pipe to secure the crew.
The last stage of the operation was conducted with manual excavation tools.
"I'm in shock, but I hope in Allah," Ryan's mother told the media in the midst of tunnel excavation operations.
"We hope that with the help of Allah my son will come out of this trouble alive."
Meanwhile, a large crowd gathered at the excavation site.
The crowd raised fears of a riot on the spot, and forces on the ground acted to keep them away.
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