Tragedy as six-year-old boy trapped in well in Afghanistan for three days dies

A six-year-old boy who became trapped in a well in a remote village in Afghanistan for three days has died.

A rescue operation was launched after Haider fell to the bottom of a 25m-deep well that was being constructed in the village Shokak in the southern Zabul province on Tuesday.

Rescue workers pulled him out on Friday afternoon but he was unresponsive and had stopped breathing.

“Unfortunately, Haidar left us forever,” the Taliban government’s interior ministry adviser Anas Haqqani said.

He added that Afghanistan was witnessing a great tragedy and prayed for the child’s family.

“In the first minutes after the rescue operation was completed he was breathing, and the medical team gave him oxygen,” Zabul police spokesman Zabiullah Jawhar told AFP. “When the medical team tried to carry him to the helicopter, he lost his life.”

Heart-breaking footage shared on social media earlier on showed the boy responding to his father during the rescue operation.

“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.

The ordeal has attracted a huge following and outpouring of support on social media, with #SaveHaider trending on Twitter.

It comes after a similar attempt to save another child trapped in a well in Morocco ended in tragedy after attracting national attention.

Ryan, a five-year-old, had plunged into a 32-metre well in early February and was pulled out dead after five days.