Slideshow ( 6 images ) TOTALAN, Spain (Reuters) - Spanish emergency services were working to rescue a toddler trapped in a well since Sunday. The two-year-old boy was seen falling into the well as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan, Malaga, in southern Spain, his father Jose told Spanish media. Among debris pulled out of the well, rescuers found hair, which DNA tests confirmed belonged to the child. No signs of life have been detected. The town’s residents turned out on Wednesday for a vigil to support the family, many holding homemade placards reading “All of Spain is with you” and “We are sending you our strength”. One man held a sign simply reading “Julen,” the name of the toddler. Emergency services are using cameras to try to locate the child but said access was difficult, with soil partially blocking the well, which is just 25 cm (10 inches) wide and 100 meters (328 feet) deep. “We are not only giving voice for all the residents of Totalan but also for the rest of the country because we have all had Julen in our minds since last Sunday,” resident Patricia Calderon told reporters. Spanish police said members of a Swedish firm which helped locate 33 Chilean miners rescued after 69 days underground more than seven years ago had arrived on Tuesday to help in the rescue operation. Alternative routes were being studied and officials said they were working to dig a tunnel next to the well.<doc-sep>The parents of a toddler who has been trapped down a deep well in Spain for more than three days were clinging to hope Wednesday as rescuers revealed they expect to reach him within 48 hours. Crews have worked around the clock digging an intersecting tunnel to free the two-year-old boy, whose first name is Yulen. His father, Jose Rosello, said the ordeal has been difficult but added he's feeling encouraged as rescuers inch closer. "My wife is broken ... we are dead inside," Rosello told reporters on Wednesday. "But we hope we have an angel to get my son out of there." The site of the rescue operation. Alvaro Cabrera / EPA The well is located in Totalán, a town in the southern province of Málaga. It is about 360 feet deep and only 10 inches wide. A few hairs found in the soil extracted from the well during the rescue operation provided DNA matching the boy's, said Maria Galvez, a government official at the site on Wednesday. That confirms that he's inside, she added. Rescue teams start opening a new hole to reach where the toddler is trapped. EPA An attempt to send down a robotic camera on Monday was only partially successful. The device made it only 229 feet below the surface when the hole became too narrow for it to go further. However, it managed to spot candies Yulen had been carrying. Efforts were made to widen the well but hard rock has impeded machinery from getting past the 262-foot mark, according to Galvez. The country's air force transported a mining rescue team to the town to support crews already at the site. The specialists were on site Wednesday aiding in the dig of an intersecting tunnel, which has to be executed carefully to prevent an internal collapse within the well. Galvez said that crews expect to reach the deepest portion of the well by Friday. "Now they are making progress ... we have a bit more hope," the boy's father said. Meanwhile, a Swedish firm that helped locate 33 Chilean miners who were trapped in a collapsed mine for 69 days in 2010 has agreed to help in the search for the boy. The firm is providing access to a tool that could help locate Yulen. The toddler's parents have been waiting at the surface and receiving support from a group of trauma experts and psychologists. The family were having a countryside meal in the mountainous area when the boy disappeared.<doc-sep>Authorities spent the past three days working on multiple plans to get to the boy. They’re trying to determine whether they can safely widen the hole to let a robot or, possibly, a rescuer go deeper, Pilar Limon, a spokesman for the Emergencies Coordination Unit, told NBC News. Authorities are also trying to determine whether they can dig a tunnel that intersects the well.<doc-sep>Rescuers in southern Spain have began drilling in the hope of rescuing a two-year-old boy trapped in a deep well for six days. The mission to save the child has triggered an outpouring of public support as rescuers struggle with the challenge of bringing heavy equipment up steep access roads and reaching the toddler safely. “We are incredibly motivated to reach him as soon as possible. We’re not bothered by the hours, the tiredness or the lack of sleep,” Ángel Vidal, the lead engineer overseeing the rescue, said on Saturday. “We are hopeful that we will reach him as soon as possible and bring him back to his parents,” he added. However, on Sunday the effort slowed as diggers hit hard granite. Rescuers would complete the vertical shaft “at the end of the night” on Sunday if they are able to keep working at the same pace, engineer Angel Garcia Vidal who is overseeing the operations, told reporters late on Sunday. “We continue to work intensely, nonstop, and we hope to reach our desired goal very soon,” he added. The boy, Julen Roselló, fell into the borehole, which is just 25cm (10 inches) wide and 100m (yards) deep, as his family walked through a private estate in Totalan, Málaga. Officials have been unable to find signs of life but say they are working on the basis that the child is still alive. Video footage shot by firefighters and released by Spanish broadcaster Canal Sur shows a blockage around 70 metres into the well which has prevented rescue services from sending food or water to the child. Experts told Spanish media that there are slim chances that Julen could still be alive, explaining that cold weather slows a body’s metabolism, so it needs less energy and can survive with abnormally low breathing and blood flow. “The cold has a double edge. On the one hand it’s negative, because it can cause multiple consequences,” Ivan Carabano, a paediatrician at Madrid’s Hospital 12 de Octubre, told the El Pais daily. “But in this case we all hope for its better outcome: with it you gain time to survive because at lower temperatures the human metabolism slows and tissues are preserved.” Trucks brought drilling equipment and giant pipes to the site on Friday. A banner that reads “Strength Julen! Totalan is with you”, is seen at the area where the Spanish two-year-old boy fell into a deep well. Photograph: Jon Nazca/Reuters Once the first tunnel is completed, rescuers will begin working by hand to construct a second shorter tunnel to reach the area where the boy is trapped, which will take a further 20 hours. Residents of the town have held vigils for Julen and in support of his family. Spanish media say the boy’s parents suffered another tragedy in 2017 when their three-year-old son died suddenly of health problems while walking along a beach. “Be strong, Julen. Totalan is with you,” read a handmade banner hung on the roadside near the rescue site. “We are living some incredibly difficult hours for relatives, friends and neighbours (of the family) and we want to send them our support in this moment,” government spokeswoman Isabel Celaá said on Friday in a news conference.<doc-sep>
Emergency workers frantically dug a tunnel Tuesday as they tried to rescue a toddler trapped down a deep, narrow well in Spain. The two-year-old boy, whose first name is Yulen, fell down the hole on Sunday. More than 100 rescuers including firefighters, police officers and underwater teams were at the site in Totalán, a town in the southern province of Málaga. A specialist mine rescue team was en route to the scene on Tuesday afternoon. The well is 360 feet deep and only about 10 inches wide, according to Bernardo Moltó, a spokesman for the Málaga Civil Guard. The two-year-old boy fell into the hole on Sunday. Malaga Fire brigades / EPA On Monday, crews sent a robotic camera into the well. It made it 229 feet below the surface, where it found some candies the boy had been carrying. However, the width of the passage prevented the device from going any further. Rescue workers were attempting to widen the passage to allow the camera to go deeper, Pilar Limon, a spokesperson for the Emergencies Coordination Unit, told NBC News. Teams were concentrating their efforts on securing an alternative rescue route by digging a tunnel that would intersect the well, according to Maria Galvez, a Málaga government official at the site. However, workers needed to proceed carefully to prevent an internal collapse within the well. The search for the boy is taking place in a mountainous area near the town of Totalan, Spain. Gregorio Marrero / AP Yulen’s parents Vicky and Jose Garcia were waiting at the surface and were being assisted by a group of trauma experts and psychologists. The well was dug about a month before the boy fell in, according to local media. Moltó said it's unclear if had been marked in any way.