A 2-year-old boy has been trapped in a 360-foot-deep well in Spain for four days, and technical challenges are keeping rescue workers from reaching the toddler, authorities say.
Julen Rosello has been stuck in the borehole for over four days now after plummeting 30 feet down the well on Sunday while out for a picnic with his family in Totalan, off of Spain’s southern coast, according to the Associated Press. Authorities announced on Wednesday that workers were expecting to reach the boy by Friday – but technical challenges have slowed the rescue operation.
“We are working from both sides and we’ll see who gets there first,” Juan Escobar, a mining engineer, explained at a Thursday press conference, according to NBC News.
“Without time to do a preview study of the area, we will face difficulties. The most important thing here is to be able to get close to the boy.”
Angel Garcia Vidal, of Spain’s college of civil engineers, said plans to dig an intersecting tunnel to reach Julen won’t begin until Friday, according to NBC.
RELATED STORY: Boy, 2, Trapped for Over 3 Days After Falling 360 Feet Down Well: We Are ‘Broken,’ Dad Says
Julen likely wandered away from his parents that afternoon and slipped into the hole, according to the AP. He cried as he fell more than two dozen feet and has not been heard from since, according to the Washington Post. The incident has garnered global attention, with dozens of people gathering in the area to support Julen’s family and hope for his safe rescue.
Photos from the scene showed Julen’s father, Jose Rosello, in tears as the search for his son continued. Although the boy has been lost in the well for four days, authorities have continued to hold out hope.
“We are not going to stop even one minute,” said Maria Gamez, a representative of the Spanish government, according to the AP. “Nobody in the rescue team is putting in doubt that we will bring him out, and we all remain confident that he will be alive.”
More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers have been looking for the boy since Sunday. But the hole is too narrow for any adult to enter, according to the AP.
Rescue teams sent a robotic camera down the well on Monday, but even it was too big for the hole, only making it 229 feet below the surface before being unable to go any further, according to NBC. And an attempt to widen it failed earlier this week after crews hit hard rock.
However, the device did spot candy the little boy had been carrying, NBC reported. And hairs found in soil extracted from the well match the boy’s DNA, government official Maria Galvez told reporters on Wednesday.
Officials have discovered some ventilation or an air pocket within the well, but it’s not known whether air is running throughout the hole, according to NBC.
The family’s neighbor, Patricia Calderon, described the situation as “living a nightmare,” NBC reported. And, on Wednesday, Jose told reporters that he and his wife are devastated.
“My wife is broken,” Jose Rosello told reporters on Wednesday, according to NBC News. “We are dead inside. But we hope we have an angel to get my son out of there.”
Source: Read Full Article