Africa · 07 September, 2026 · 3 min read
Rescuers Race To Save 10-Year-Old Ayoub After 80-Metre Well Fall In Algeria
A 10-year-old Ayoub Hadaf fell into an 80-meter-deep dry well in Ghassoul, El Bayadh. Rescue operations lasted four days before the body was recovered.
47 outlets, one story, no spin found.
11 of 12 outlets skipped it: oxygen is pumped down through special pipes.
47outlets compared
Ayoub trapped in Algeria well
Rescue teams in southwest Algeria raced against time to save 10-year-old Ayoub after he fell into an 80-metre-deep well in the El Ghassoul municipality, according to Al Jazeera. Al-Khaleej said the incident began when Ayub was passing over a dry well on a family farm whose opening was covered by a thin wooden plank, and the plank shattered under the child’s weight, sending him into a well about 80 meters deep with a shaft diameter of only 40 centimeters. Al Jazeera reported that Ayoub reportedly fell into the well two days earlier, while Al-Khaleej described the rescue as complicated by the absence of an external wrapping pipe and by partial backfilling with earth up to nearly 30 meters.
Because rescuers could not descend directly through the narrow opening and faced soil-collapse risks, Al-Khaleej said they adopted an alternative plan to dig a deep trench parallel to the well and then breach the well wall horizontally to reach where Ayub is believed to be trapped. Al-Khaleej added that a medical team and ambulances were present at the scene to provide care as soon as the child was brought out of the well.
Civil Protection and expert guidance
Al-Khaleej quoted Karim Ben Fekhi, the spokesman for the Algerian Civil Protection, saying the General Directorate of Civil Protection began its intervention to save the child in mid-day on Wednesday and confirmed the provision of various resources necessary for the operation’s success.
Al-Khaleej said Ben Fekhi pointed to the use of excavators and large machines, along with rescue trucks and teams specialized in rugged terrain interventions, as the operation moved forward.
Al-Bawābah Nyws reported that rescue efforts continued for a third day after Ayub’s fall into a dry and deep artesian well in the municipality of Estein in the province of Bechar in western Algeria.
Al-Bawābah Nyws also quoted crisis and disaster management expert Dr. Ahmed Abdel Aal warning that the danger lay in the combination of the pipe’s extreme narrowness with the rocky soil and soil cover, which eliminates the possibility of direct intervention by civil protection teams due to lack of space for rescuers to descend.
The same source said the “parallel digging” strategy required very careful engineering, because heavy machinery could cause severe ground vibrations leading to unexpected wall collapses above the child’s resting place.
Parallel digging, oxygen, and stakes
Al-Bawābah Nyws said civil protection teams were pumping oxygen regularly through special pipes brought to the depth of the well, while attempts to supply water and monitor vital signs continued with precise thermal cameras. Al-Bawābah Nyws described how heavy machinery and excavators from public and private companies were called in to dig a vertical shaft parallel to the original well to the same depth, preparing for an horizontal tunnel to reach Ayub. Al-Jazirah Net later said the Algerian Civil Protection announced the death of the child Ayoob four days after his fall into a well, after it said it managed to reach him and rescue him.
In a statement posted on its Facebook account, Al-Jazirah Net said the Civil Protection deployed, along with local authorities and all other authorities and private entities, all human and material resources for the operation. Al-Jazirah Net framed the case as recalling earlier well tragedies, including the Moroccan child Rayan who fell in February 2022 into a well about 32 meters deep and remained trapped for more than 100 hours before rescue attempts ended with his death being announced.