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Rescuers continue search for Spanish child trapped in well

Rescue efforts are continuing for a two-year-old boy trapped in a well in southern Spain, with excavation works on Monday nearing the depth where the child is believed to be stuck. The child, identified as Julen, fell into the 25-centimetre-wide hole as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan, Malaga on January 13. After lowering the ground terrain by some 20 metres, rescuers need to drill a 60-metre hole to be level with Julen, before beginning the arduous process of manually digging a four-metre tunnel. Juan Lopez Escobar, an engineer in the rescue team, told Euronews the drilling reached 53 metres on Monday morning. The drilling is taking place "with many difficulties due to the characteristics of the terrain”, he said. In a tweet on Monday afternoon, Spain’s Civil Guard shared a “message of encouragement” for the rescue teams. Satellite images Satellite images captured by the Copernicus, the EU’s observation programme, have revealed the extent of the rescue efforts. Comparing images from January 14 and 19, it is clear to see how the area cleared for the rescue efforts has expanded. Medical outlook Pediatricians told Euronews on Monday that severe dehydration poses the most significant risk to the child after more than one week in the well. However, Manuel Baca, head of Pediatrics of Quirónsalud Málaga hospital, said Julen’s chance of survival is improved by his age. "Children are more resistant in almost everything. What a newborn is capable of supporting in the birth canal, an adult could not stand. Children have an organism that is very adapted to survive under any circumstance," he said. He added that it was possible that Julen had entered a state of “semi-coma”, where his body would need to consume less. Others, meanwhile, were less optimistic of Julen’s chances of survival.