Moroccans waited anxiously today as rescuers with heavy diggers closed in on Rayan, a five-year-old boy trapped in a deep well for four days.
The complex and dangerous operation has gripped residents of the North African kingdom and even in neighbouring Algeria, a regional rival with strained political ties to Morocco.
Rayan fell some 32 metres (100ft) down the dry well in his village of Ighrane in the rural northern province of Chefchaouen on Tuesday afternoon.
Moroccan media reported that rescuers managed to deliver oxygen and water to the bottom of the well yesterday, but authorities have not disclosed more information on the child's condition since.
The shaft, just 45cms (18 inches) across, was too narrow for rescuers to reach him and widening it was deemed too risky, so earth-movers were deployed to dig a slope in the hope of reaching the boy from the side.
Authorities said today they were in the final stages and were stabilising the earth in order to dig a three-metre horizontal tunnel to safely extract the boy, an operation made more complex by the mix of rocky and sandy layers and the risk of a landslide.
"We're almost there. We've been working non-stop for three days and tiredness is kicking in, but the whole rescue team is hanging on," said one of the operation's leaders, Abdesalam Makoudi.
The machines had worked under floodlights throughout last night, with excavations turning the landscape into a construction site of red earth in the forested countryside.
"The child's rescue is approaching," government spokesman Mustapha Baitas said.
"Our hearts are with the family, and we are praying that he will back with them as soon as possible."
The boy's mother told Moroccan media that Rayan had been playing nearby when he disappeared on Tuesday afternoon.
"The whole family went out to look for him then we realised that he'd fallen down the well," she said with tears in her eyes.
"I'm still keeping up hope that we'll get him out alive."
The MAP news agency said medics were on site to check on the boy once he is extracted.
Authorities also have a helicopter on standby to take the child to hospital once he is extracted, national news channel 2M said.
The drama has sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan going viral across the North African region.
Moroccan footballer and PSG star Achraf Hakimi mentioned the rescue efforts on social media, alongside emojis of a broken heart and hands together in prayer.
Manchester City's Algerian star Riyad Mahrez also joined the chorus of solidarity, sharing a picture of Rayan on Facebook alongside the hashtag "Stay Strong".
The boy's fate has also attracted crowds of people to the site of the operation, and authorities have called on the public to "let the rescuers do their job and save this child".
The accident echoes a tragedy that occurred in Spain in early 2019 when a two-year-old child died after falling into an abandoned well 25 centimetres wide and more than 70 metres deep.
Julen Rosello's body was recovered after a search and rescue operation that lasted 13 days.
