The Moroccan royal palace on Saturday night confirmed the death of the boy who had been trapped in well for five days.
Rayan, 5, died before rescuers could save him.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI in a statement on Saturday expressed his condolences to the boy’s parents.
Local media report that workers retrieved the body of the young boy on Saturday who was trapped for five days in a well in northern Morocco.
“It was a devastating end to a painstaking operation that gripped the nation,” AlJazeera reported.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the boy wrapped in a yellow blanket after he was carried out from a tunnel dug specifically for the rescue.
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.
The exact circumstances of how the boy fell in the well remain unclear.
The drama sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan trending across North Africa.
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