Julen search: Spain finds body of two-year-old in borehole

Rescuers in Spain have found the body of a two-year-old boy who fell into a borehole near the southern city of Málaga, officials say.

The boy, named Julen, disappeared into a narrow well more than 100m (330ft) deep during a family outing on 13 January.

Specialist teams worked day and night in a tunnel that had been dug parallel to the narrow borehole.

The body was found in the early hours of Saturday morning.

“At 01:25 (00:25 GMT), the rescue teams reached the area of the well where they were looking for Julen and they found the lifeless body of the little one,” said Alfonso Rodriguez Gomez de Celis, the central government representative in the region of Andalusia.

The accident happened during a Sunday afternoon excursion in a hilly plantation near the village of Totalán.

The borehole – only 25cm (10in) in diameter – had apparently been left uncovered, although the businessman who had originally had it dug a month earlier insisted that he had sealed it.

Such shafts are dug in the hope of extracting water.

Rescuers had found hair among debris removed from the well and compared it with DNA samples from the boy’s drinking bottle as well as from his family, confirming his identity.

A camera sent down the hole found a snack bag believed to be the one Julen was holding when he fell.

At 73m (240ft) the camera encountered an earth blockage in the shaft.

Rescuers had not picked up any hopeful sign from the boy during the whole operation.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter on Saturday: “All of Spain feels the infinite sadness of Julen’s family.”

“We will always appreciate the tireless effort of those who searched for him during all these days.”

Source: BBC

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