After Moroccan boy Rayan Awram’s tragedy, a look at other incidents when tunnels turned into death traps
Five-year-old Rayan Awram was found dead after a four-day operation to rescue him from a shaft 32 metres deep in the hills near Chefchaouen, in northern Morocco
Parents of 5-year-old Rayan walk towards the tunnel as their son’s body was being retrieved, after he fell into a hole and was stuck there for several days, in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s Chefchaouen province. AP
“The people clung together, as a whole, to save Rayan, they worked together to save a child. The rescuers tried their best, unfortunately they did not make it,” said Pope Francis mourning the loss of five-year-old Rayan Awram, who passed away after being trapped for five days in a well in northern Morocco.
As Rayan Awram’s demise sparked an outpouring of sympathy, we take a look at what happened in this incident and how it’s also a reminder of similar tragedies.
Rayan Awram passes away in trapped well
The incident took place last Tuesday when the boy fell into a 32-metre (100-feet) deep well in the hills near Chefchaouen, in northern Morocco.
The well was just 45 cm (18 inches) wide at the top and narrowed further to the bottom, making it impossible for rescuers to descend directly.
A massive digging operation began in which earth movers dug a wide slope into the hill and then a horizontal connecting tunnel to reach him from the side.
But progress slowed as the drill teams worked by hand to avoid any vibrations that might bring the brittle soil down on the child, local authorities said.
Late Saturday evening, crowds cheered when the rescue workers broke through the final stretch of earth to reach the boy, and volunteer digger Ali Sahraoui cleared the last soil away with his hands.
Rescue workers carry the body of 5-year-old Rayan and place it in an ambulance after it was retrieved from a hole in which he was stuck for several days, in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s Chefchaouen province. AP
The bid to free the boy, Rayan Oram, had gripped the country, with hundreds of people gathered at the well and thousands more following online.
On social media, people using the hashtag #SaveRayan, which had been trending across the country and around the world, expressed their jubilation.
Morocco moved a mountain for you
But Allah loved you MORE#Rayan #SaveRayan pic.twitter.com/tckMH7YO0N— d.i.l.a ديلا (@x_dila_x) February 5, 2022
But this turned to heartbreak minutes later when the statement came announcing that Rayan had died.
The race to rescue Rayan was followed live across the world, and as soon as the tragic conclusion was announced, tributes poured in.
From Pope Francis to France’s Emmanuel Macron to Israeli president Isaac Herzog, they all mourned the loss of little Rayan.
Other such incidents
However, the demise of Rayan isn’t the first time that such an incident has taken place.
There have been other such cases when people have passed away after being trapped in a tunnel or borewell.
Zhuhai tunnel incident: In July last year, 14 construction workers died in a flooded highway tunnel in China’s Guangdong province. The incident occurred when the workers were reported to have been trapped in a waterlogged tunnel section of an under-construction highway in Zhuhai city.
Rescuers working to clear a flooded tunnel after it collapsed in Zhuhai in China’s southern Guangdong province. AFP
The Shijingshan tunnel is a section of an expressway under construction that passes beneath a reservoir in the Guangdong province city that lies close to Hong Kong and Macao. The rescue effort involved divers, remote-controlled submarines and other high-tech equipment while workers on the surface rushed to pump out water from the tunnel.
Meghalaya miners: In July 2021, the Meghalaya administration called off its search for five miners who were trapped in a flooded coal mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district, 39 days after the incident took place.
Search and rescue operations at the coal mine in East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya. PTI
The rat-hole mine at Umpleng, about 20 km from Khliehriat, the headquarters of East Jaintia Hills district, was flooded trapping five migrant workers four from Assam and one from Tripura- after a dynamite explosion on 30 May. Six co-workers of the trapped miners escaped the tragedy as they were outside the mine at the time of the incident and they were escorted to their homes.
In 2018, a similar accident had taken place at Lumthari in the same district, about 20 km away from the coal mine at Umpleng.
Hazardous rat-hole coal mining is not permitted in Meghalaya after the NGT banned it in 2014.
Sujith Wilson: Two-year-old, Sujith Wilson died on 26 October 2019 after falling into an abandoned deep bore well by his house in Nadukattupatti, a village near Trichy in Tamil Nadu. He fell into the borewell on 25 October 2019 around 5:45 pm while his mother was attending his elder brother.
Family members and relatives mourn near the mortal remains of Sujith Wilson before his funeral in Tiruchirappalli. PTI
The rescue operations commenced on the same day and went in full swing continuously for more than 80 hours. The operations to rescue Sujith went viral across the country as prayers were conducted for the rescue operations of the boy. However, on 30 October 2019, officials confirmed the death of the boy, and the last rites were held six hours later.
Officials had said at the time that initially, the child was stuck at a depth of about 30 feet but subsequently slipped further down, and the body was finally pulled out from a depth of 88 feet.
With inputs from agencies
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