Boy who became trapped in well in Afghanistan sparking four-day rescue effort has died

Rescuers say Haider stopped responding on Thursday

Afghans gather as rescuers try to reach and rescue a boy trapped for days in a well in the remote village of Shokak (AFP via Getty Images)

A six-year-old boy who became trapped in a well in a remote village in Afghanistan for four days has died, despite a major rescue operation and significant media attention after pictures and videos of him crouched in a narrow tunnel went viral this week.

Rescue workers who had been scrambling to save Haidar from the deep well pulled him out on Friday afternoon. But he was unresponsive and had stopped breathing when they finally reached him.

“Unfortunately, Haidar left us forever,” the Taliban government’s interior ministry senior adviser Anas Haqqani said on Friday, minutes after the child was rescued. He added that Afghanistan was witnessing a great tragedy and prayed for the child’s family.

Haider fell to the bottom of the 25m-deep well that was being constructed in the village of Shokak in southern Zabul province on Tuesday. He was pulled up to a depth of about 10m with the help of a rope before he got stuck, according to AFP news agency.

A video of the boy, captured during the rescue operation when a camera was lowered into the well by a rope, showed him responding to his father.

“Are you okay, my son?” his father asked him. “Talk with me and don’t cry, we are working to get you out.”

“Okay, I’ll keep talking,” the boy replied.

Rescuers were trying to retrieve him by digging a parallel tunnel. They were close to getting him out on Thursday but were no longer receiving responses from him, according to BBC News.

The ordeal had gripped the people of the country and #SaveHaider trended on social media, with an outpouring of sympathy for the boy.

This comes after a similar attempt to save another child trapped in a well in Morocco ended in vain after making national headlines. Ryan, a five-year-old, had plunged into a 32-metre well in early February and was pulled out dead after five days.