TOTALAN, Spain, Jan 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Rescuers early on Saturday found
the body of a two-year-old boy who fell into a deep well nearly two weeks ago
in southern Spain, triggering an unprecedented rescue operation fraught with
glitches that had kept the country on tenterhooks.
Hundreds of people had been working round-the-clock under the media glare
to try to reach Julen Rosello, who plunged down a narrow shaft which is more
than 100 metres (330 feet) deep on January 13 while his parents prepared a
lunch in Totalan, a southern town near Malaga.
“Unfortunately at 1:25 am the rescue team reached the spot where they were
looking for Julen and found the lifeless body of the little one,” the central
government’s representative in the southwestern region of Andalusia, Alfonso
Rodriguez Gomez de Celis, wrote on Twitter.
A hearse arrived at the site shortly after the news broke to take his body
to a funeral home.
There had been no sign of life from the boy but rescuers believed they knew
where he was inside the illegal well.
The only evidence of the boy’s presence were some strands of hair that
matched his DNA and a bag of candy that he had been holding when he fell into
the well.
“All of Spain feels the infinite sadness of Julen’s family. We have
followed closely every step to reach him,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote
on Twitter.
“We will always appreciate the tireless effort of those who searched for
him during all these days.”
– Complex operation –
The complex search-and-rescue operation had been fraught with complications
that caused delay upon delay as Julen’s distraught parents and relatives
stood by.
Rescuers were not able to get to Julen via the well he fell down because it
was blocked by a layer of earth, sand and stones believed to have been
dislodged when he tumbled into the shaft.
They decided to dig a vertical shaft parallel to the well, 60 metres deep,
which was finished late on Monday.
The idea was to secure the shaft with tubes then take elite miners down in
a specially made cage to start digging a horizontal tunnel to the site where
they believe the child was.
But the tubes designed to secure the shaft did not fit, so they had to
widen it, which delayed the operation still further.
Eventually, they succeeded and expert miners on Thursday began
painstakingly digging a four-metre tunnel to join both channels and hopefully
reach Julen with the help of four small, controlled explosions.
The miners worked in teams of two and were equipped with oxygen tanks.
Each small explosion took about two hours, which slowed down the rescue
attempt.
Two miners had to first go down the shaft and bore a few holes. They were
then followed by two specialised officers who set up the explosives. Once
they returned above ground, the explosives were detonated and then the rescue
team had to wait half an hour to clear the shaft of polluted air.
– ‘Come out alive’ –
Despite the passage of time, the boy’s relatives held out hope that he had
somehow survived the fall and would be found alive.
Jose Rosello, Julen’s father, told reporters that “we have an angel that
will help my son come out alive as soon as possible.”
Julen’s parents lost another child, Oliver, aged three, in 2017. The child
had cardiac problems.
In a tweet, Spain’s King Felipe VI extended his “deepest condolences to
Julen’s whole family”.
The well was unmarked at the time of the accident and regional authorities
in Andalusia said the necessary permission had not been sought before it was
dug.
This race against time recalled several other high-profile cases in the
1980s.
Alfredo Rampi, an Italian boy, was found dead in a well near Rome in 1981
while Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old girl, was rescued alive from a well in
Texas in October 1987 after more than two days inside.