Authorities are racing to save a nine-year-old boy who has been trapped 33 feet down a deep well for three days in southern Afghanistan.

Rescuers used heavy machinery on Thursday night, February 17, as they scrambled to dig down and reach the child named Haidar, who had fallen into the shaft in Shokok village in Zabul province.

Abdullah Azzam, secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said: 'A team is there with an ambulance, oxygen and other necessary things.'

Haidar's father was also at the scene reassuring and comforting him.

A similar incident ended in tragedy in Morocco early February, when a five-year-old boy died while he was trapped in a 32ft-deep well for five days.