Doha: Workers retrieved the body of young boy on Saturday who was trapped for five days in a well in northern Morocco.
The royal palace said in a statement carried by state media that the boy had died.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the boy wrapped in a yellow blanket after he emerged from a tunnel dug specifically for the rescue.
Workers with mechanical diggers worked around the clock to save the five-year-old child, Rayan Awram, after he fell into a 32-metre (100-feet) deep well in the hills near Chefchaouen on Tuesday.
The effort was a delicate and dangerous operation, constantly delayed by heavy rocks and imperiled by the threat of landslides.
Images on Moroccan media had shown Rayan huddled at the bottom of the disused well, which narrows as it descends from 45cm (18 inches) wide at the top, preventing rescuers from descending.
Hundreds of villagers stood waiting nearby for news as the rescue operation continued on Saturday.
A male relative of the boy told Reuters TV the family first realised he was missing when they heard muffled cries and lowered a phone with its light and camera on to locate him.
