In Spain drilling underway to rescue Julen, the son who everyone hopes is alive
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Rescuers in southern Spain worked through the night as efforts to reach a two-year-old boy trapped in a deep well since Sunday entered a sixth day in an operation that has gripped the nation.
The mission to save the child has triggered an outpouring of public support as rescuers struggle with the challenge of reaching the toddler safely and bringing heavy equipment up steep access roads..
“It’s absolutely amazing the energy that we see here and the desire to get that boy out of there,” Angel Vidal, one of the engineers involved in the rescue, said on Friday evening.
The whole nation is holding its breath for the outcome, not least because Julen’s parents lived another family tragedy in 2017.
“It’s as if Julen were everyone’s son,” Angel Vidal, an engineer involved in the rescue effort, told reporters.
The boy, Julen, fell into the borehole, which is just 25 cm (10 inches) wide and 100 meters (yards) deep, as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan, Malaga.
Officials have been unable to find signs of life but say they are working on the basis that the child is still alive.
Trucks brought drilling equipment and giant pipes to the site on Friday. Drilling of the first of two tunnels that will be made to reach the boy is expected to begin at midday local time on Saturday and take around 15 hours, officials said.
