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Ayoub trapped in Algeria
A 10-year-old boy, Ayoub, fell into a narrow, dry artesian well about 80 meters deep in the village of Er Rekn/El Reken in Algeria’s El Bayadh province on Wednesday, September 2, after walking across a plywood board that collapsed beneath him.
“Ayoub walked across a wooden board that suddenly collapsed, plunging him into an 80-metre-deep well”
Rescue teams from Algeria’s Civil Protection deployed specialist crews, heavy excavation machinery, and well-inspection cameras, while a medical team remained on site to provide immediate assistance once rescuers reached the boy.
The well’s opening was described as only 40 centimeters wide, with soil dumped inside reaching a depth of around 30 meters, and rescuers said a direct descent was too dangerous due to the narrowness and instability of the surrounding earth.
Instead of lowering rescuers into the shaft, teams dug a parallel shaft toward the spot where Ayoub was believed to be trapped, planning to excavate a horizontal tunnel to reach him from the side.
The rescue effort has revived comparisons to the case of Rayan, a five-year-old Moroccan boy who fell into a deep well in Chefchaouen province in February 2022 and was found dead after a five-day operation.
Civil Protection explains method
Algerian Civil Protection spokesman Karim Ben Fahsi said rescue efforts had been under way since around midday on Wednesday, with bulldozers, drilling equipment, ambulances, rescue vehicles, and specialist teams deployed to the scene.
The rescue operation was repeatedly framed as extremely complex because the well’s narrow opening and fragile soil made direct descent too risky, pushing crews to continue parallel drilling and then break through the well wall horizontally.
In a father’s account carried by Al-Sharq, Mohammed Hadeed said Ayoub responded from inside the well, telling him: "Daddy, take me out," and began to cry.
The same account described the rescue teams as digging while they continued to talk to the child, with the spokesman emphasizing that the parallel drilling was carried out with “strict security measures.”
BBC reported that Algerian social media and platforms buzzed with the news of Ayoub’s fall in the village of Arkan in Naâma Province, as rescue and civil protection teams mobilized in a race against time amid fears of landslides.
Time, risk, and public attention
As the operation continued, Tunisie Numerique said that as of Friday, September 4, 2026, no extraction of the child had been officially confirmed and Civil Protection had dismissed information circulating on social networks that Ayoub had already been found.
“operations were continuing and no extraction of the child had been officially confirmed”
The same outlet reported that Civil Protection said it received the alert at 12:15 p.m. before sending its first teams, and that the well was traditionally dug, reaching about 80 meters deep with a diameter that does not exceed 40 centimeters.
Tunisie Numerique also quoted the father’s reported appeal from inside the well, including the line: "Dad, get me out of here," while noting that the exact wording had not been confirmed in a separate official communication.
The rescue plan described by multiple outlets centered on avoiding collapse risks by limiting access through a narrow opening and using a parallel passage approach, with the operation continuing under the supervision of El Bayadh province authorities and Civil Protection officials.
The incident’s stakes were underscored by the repeated reference to Rayan’s February 2022 death after a five-day rescue in Morocco’s Chefchaouen province, which several reports said the Algerian case had brought back into public memory.