Boy trapped for 3 days in Afghan well has died, officials say

A five-year-old boy trapped for three days down a well in a remote Afghan village has died, several Taliban officials said Friday.

The child, named Haidar, slipped Tuesday to the bottom of a well being dug in Shokak, a parched village in Zabul province, around 400km southwest of the capital Kabul.

Rescuers worked non-stop to try to reach the boy, who officials said was still alive Friday morning – before later announcing he had died.

“With great sorrow, young Haidar is separated from us forever,” said Taliban interior ministry senior adviser Anas Haqqani, in a tweet echoed by several of his colleagues.

The operation comes around two weeks after a similar attempt to rescue a boy from a Moroccan well gripped the world, but ended with the child found dead.