A frantic rescue operation is underway in northern Morocco to save a 5-year-old boy who has been trapped in a deep well for nearly three days.

The boy, named Rayan, fell down a narrow 32-meter (100-foot) deep well in the village of Ighran in the country's Chefchaouen province on Tuesday.

"The child's rescue is approaching," government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas told the media on Thursday.

"Our hearts are with the family, and we are praying that he will back with them as soon as possible."

What is the latest?

With diggers burrowing under floodlights, rescue workers scrambled to reach the boy for a third night.

Rescuers said they had dug down some 24 meters, but around 6 meters remained still in order to reach the boy.

Relief workers managed to provide an oxygen tube and water to the child using pipes, Morocco's official MAP news agency reported.

"I pray and beg God that he comes out of that well alive and safe," his mother Wassima Kharchich told local television network 2M.

"Please God, ease my pain and his, in that hole of dust.''

The boy's father told news website Le360 that he was repairing the well when Rayan fell into it.

The diameter of the well is less than 45 centimeters (17.7 inches), lead rescuer Abdelhabi Temrani told Al Oula television.

Baitas said that major excavations were the only solution as the nature of the soil made attempts to widen the hole too dangerous.

Thousands took to social media to express their solidarity for the boy and his family, with the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan trending for hours in Morocco and Northern Africa.

dvv/rs (AFP, AP)