In the search for a missing toddler in the Spanish community Totalán there are new problems. The boy had apparently fallen into a nearly 110-meter deep well over a week ago. After helpers on Monday night had managed to complete an auxiliary shaft, the metal tubes intended to stabilize it did not fit.

When lowering the stabilizing tubes, the specialists had encountered difficulties at a depth of 40 meters, said a government spokesman in Malaga. The work to broaden the shaft was running, but it was not clear how long it would take.

Once the manhole is stabilized by the pipes, a team of mining experts are to go into the shaft and start building a four-meter horizontal connection tunnel to the well where the boy is suspected.

They would fight with picks and shovels, possibly with smaller explosions and jackhammers through the rock, said the spokesman for the forces Ángel García Vidal. He expects a total of 20 to 24 hours for this work.

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Spain: Dramatic search for biennial in borehole

Julen, according to his family, fell into the hole near the Andalusian municipality of Totalán on January 13 while his parents picnicked nearby. The 110 meter deep exploration shaft with a diameter of only 25 centimeters had been drilled in December according to local media in the search for water. Accordingly, the shaft was not secured and not marked.

Since then, hundreds of volunteers are trying to find the boy with a large contingent. Scree and earth, which Julen had apparently torn in his fall, block the hole at a depth of about 70 meters. In addition, with a diameter of 25 centimeters it is too narrow for the emergency services. Since the beginning of the mission there was no sign of life from Julen.