Body Of 2-Year-Old Recovered After 13 Day Rescue Effort

Rescue crews in Spain early Saturday found the body of a 2-year-old boy, whose fall into a deep borehole 13 days earlier prompted a complex and heart-wrenching search-and-rescue operation that had the country holding its breath.

Julen Rosello fell down the narrow 360-foot-deep borehole on Jan. 13 while his family was preparing a countryside Sunday lunch.

Rescuers Trying To Reach 2-Year-Old Who Fell Into Well 

Adding to the family's tragedy, Spanish media had reported that his parents had another young son who died of a heart attack in 2017.

Julen's remains were found in the early hours of Saturday by rescuers digging a tunnel to reach him, said a spokeswoman with the Spanish government's office in the southern province of Malaga.

The spokeswoman, who was not authorized to be named in the media according to internal protocol, said that a judicial commission would follow up with the accident's investigation.

The tragedy gripped Spaniards from day one and the country followed closely every turn of an extremely complex operation, frequently hampered by layers of hard rock.

The dry waterhole, only 10 inches in diameter, was too narrow for an adult to get into and hardened soil and rock blocked equipment from progressing to the place two-thirds of the way down where the toddler was trapped.

During the nearly two weeks of the ordeal, officials came up with several alternative routes, and a series of small explosions set off since Thursday afternoon helped crews make their way through a 3.8-meter (12 ½-foot) -long horizontal tunnel to the cavity.