Morocco Set to Bury Rayan Who Died after Falling down Deep Well

On Monday Morocco announced that it will bury the boy who was found dead after being trapped down a deep well for five days.

The body of Rayan, 5, was pulled out on Saturday night.

His funeral is set to take place on Monday in the village of Ighrane, where the drama unfolded.

"The silence is terrible this (Sunday) morning in the village. Everyone was praying that he would come out alive. Everyone cried," a relative of the family told AFP.

Abroad, Pope Francis greeted "a whole (Moroccan) people who came together to save Rayan", during the Angelus prayer celebrated in the Vatican.

"They tried everything, unfortunately, he did not survive. But what an example. Thank you to these people for this testimony," said François.

The pope's words came as work began on Sunday to fill in the relief tunnels that rescuers had drilled to try and get to Rayan.

Rayan fell into a 32-meter (105-feet) well located outside his home on Tuesday evening. The exact circumstances of how he fell are unclear.

For three days, search crews used bulldozers to dig a parallel ditch.

Then on Friday, they started excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy. Morocco’s MAP news agency said that experts in topographical engineering were called upon for help.

Rescuers used a rope to send oxygen and water down to the boy as well as a camera to monitor him. By Saturday morning, the head of the rescue committee, Abdelhadi Temrani, said: “It is not possible to determine the child’s condition at all at this time. But we hope to God that the child is alive.”

The work had been especially difficult because of fears that the soil surrounding the well could collapse on the boy.

The village of about 500 people is dotted with deep wells, many used for irrigating the cannabis crop that is the main source of income for many in the poor, remote and arid region of Morocco’s Rif Mountains. Most of the wells have protective covers.