Saving Rayan: Rescuers inch towards Moroccan boy stuck down well

Moroccan rescuers are inching towards a five-year boy who has been stuck in a well for several days.

Rayan Awram fell down the 32-metre deep well on Tuesday afternoon while playing outside his parents' house in the village of Ighran, close to the city of Chefchaouen.

Attempts to pull him out of the well failed because of the well's 30-centimetre width. With no access to food or water and little oxygen in the well, concern for Rayan's welfare quickly grew.

Using a camera sent down into the well, doctors were able to see that Rayan was still alive on Saturday morning, Al-Arabiya reported.

The authorities sent bulldozers to dig the earth around the well on Wednesday, despite fears that the digging could cause a landslide that might endanger Rayan.

Specialists began to dig a horizontal route towards the well on Friday.

A medical team and an ambulance are on standby at the scene.

The incident attracted international attention, including messages of solidarity from football stars, while social media users used the hashtag #SaveRayan to show their support.

As Rayan's rescue neared, Abdelali Al-Rami, the head of the civil Child Protection Forum, told 2M called for unused wells to be filled in or fenced off to prevent any such incident from happening again.