Five-year-old Haider dies after three days trapped in Afghanistan well

A five-year-old boy trapped for three days down a remote Afghan village well has died, Taliban officials said on Friday.

The child, named Haider, slipped on Tuesday to the bottom of a well-being dug in Shokak, a parched village in Zabul province, around 400 kilometres south-west of the capital Kabul.

“With great sorrow, young Haider is separated from us forever,” said Taliban interior ministry senior adviser Anas Haqqani, in a tweet echoed by several of his colleagues.

Rescuers worked through the night to try to reach the boy trapped for three days, but an official said on Friday that a large rock was blocking their final access to the shaft.

The boy's grandfather, Haji Abdul Hadi, 50, said Haidar fell down the well when he was trying to help the adults dig a new borehole in the drought-hit village.

Officials said the boy slipped to the bottom of the 25-metre shaft, but was pulled by rope to about 10 metres before becoming stuck.

Afghan people gather as rescuers try to reach and rescue a boy trapped down a well in a remote southern Afghan village of Shokak, in Zabul province, about 120km from Kandahar. AFP

Senior officials from the Taliban's newly installed government were overseeing rescue operations in Shokak, watched by hundreds of villagers.

Taliban officials were posting videos of the rescue operation to show how the new regime, widely criticised for rights abuses, would spare nothing to care for citizens.