PETALING JAYA: The tragedy of Rayan Oram, who died after being trapped for five days in a well in Morocco is heartbreaking, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

       “The entire Malaysian Family and I extend our sincere and heartfelt condolences to Rayan’s family.

       “May Allah SWT grant him the highest rank of Jannah. Al-fatihah,” he tweeted yesterday.

       Rayan was trapped in a well in northern Moroccan before rescuers were able to reach him late on Saturday and retrieve his body, Reuters reported.

       Footage posted on social media showed hundreds of distraught rescue workers and onlookers gathered at the site chanting prayers and shining the flashlights of their phones into the air.

       The well is only 45cm wide at the top and tapers as it drops 32m to the bottom where Rayan was trapped, making it impossible for rescuers to descend directly.

       The hilly region around Chefchaouen is bitterly cold in winter and rescuers attempted to keep the boy alive by lowering food, water and oxygen through a tube.

       Rescuers had worked round the clock cutting a massive trench through the hillside, before tunnelling horizontally towards Rayan.

       They faced a constant risk of triggering landslides.

       In the final hours of the rescue effort, workers had to move with extreme caution as they attempted to dig through earth and rocks to Rayan. They were eventually able to access the well late on Saturday.