A little boy who had fallen down a 33ft well has died despite a three-day rescue effort.
Haidar, 6, was trapped and was unable to move his arms and upper body as rescuers tried to dig the youngster out.
The boy's grandfather said he fell down the well while helping adults dig a new borehole to reach water in the drought-ravaged region of Afghanistan.
Heavy diggers were brought into the area and a large trench had been dug for workers to try and reach the boy.
A large rock blocked the final few metres after rescuers worked through the night to reach him.
Zabul police spokesman Zabiullah Jawhar said: “The rescue team has faced a new obstacle and a rock is preventing them from digging more.
"We are concerned that dust could fall on the boy, and probably we would lose him, so we are working carefully.”
Workers then used pickaxes to break the rock on Friday morning and finally got to Haidar.
Mr Jawhar told reporters Haidar was clinging to life when rescuers finally reached him.
But he added: "In the first minutes after the rescue operation was completed he was breathing, and the medical team gave him oxygen.
"When the medical team tried to carry him to the helicopter, he lost his life."
The boy's death was formally announced by Anas Haqqani, senior adviser at the Taliban-run interior ministry, tweeted: "With great sorrow, young Haidar is separated from us forever."
Yesterday, a camera had been sent down the well in the remote Afghani village of Shokok in the south of the country.
It recorded the tearful boy as he was comforted by his father who told him people were trying to get him out.
The dad was heard saying: "Are you OK, my son?
"Talk with me and don't cry, we are working to get you out."
"OK, I'll keep talking," the boy replies calmly.
His death is the second in two weeks of young children falling down wells after five-year-old Rayan Awram died in Morocco.
