KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – A five-year-old boy trapped for three days down a well in a remote Afghan village has died, several Taliban officials said Friday.
The child, named Haidar, slipped Tuesday to the bottom of a well being dug in Shokak, a parched village in Zabul province, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of the capital Kabul.
Rescuers worked non-stop to try to reach the boy, who officials said was still alive Friday morning — before later announcing he had died.
“With great sorrow, young Haidar is separated from us forever,” said Taliban interior ministry senior adviser Anas Haqqani, in a tweet echoed by several of his colleagues.
The operation comes around two weeks after a similar attempt to rescue a boy from a Moroccan well gripped the world, but ended with the child found dead.
© Agence France-Presse
