The countdown is running in search of little Julen at a deep well shaft in southern Spain. An eight-man team of miners was on Friday morning barely two and a half meters away from the point where the twelve-year missing two-year-old is suspected.
The men who dig a horizontal tunnel in the Andalusian Totalán since Thursday night in an approximately 80 -meter deep rescue shaft under the most difficult conditions, would have done in just over twelve hours around one and a half of a total of 3.8 meters, reported media, citing the forces. One hoped to be able to recover the boy during the course of Friday.
There was still no sign of life from the child. It is hoped that it could still be alive. Julen is said to have fallen on January 13 during a trip with his parents in a 107 -meter deep, illegally dug shaft. Because the hole is only 25-30 centimeters in diameter, the rescuers decided to dig a parallel shaft to get past Julen. He is suspected at a depth of 70 to 80 meters.
Various problems – including the uneven, hard to reach disaster site on the hill Cerro de la Corona near the coastal city of Málaga and the hardness of the ground – had delayed the work time and time again. Because the miners had also encountered extremely hard rocks during the night of Friday, two micro-blasts were carried out to loosen the soil, reported the newspaper „La Vanguardia“ and other Spanish media, citing the representation of the Madrid central government in Andalusia.
For safety reasons, the miners, experienced specialists from the northern Spanish coalmining region of Asturias, mainly work with picks and jackhammers. The teams of two are lowered into the shaft with a special capsule and detach each 30 to 40 minutes. The conditions are extreme, because of the tightness, the men could dig only kneeling or lying, it was said.
