This is the first footage inside the 240ft stretch of tunnel separating rescuers from a two-year-old boy who fell down the borehole in a freak accident on Sunday.
The video – taken by a rotating camera on a robot – shows part of the agonising drop Julen Rosello will have suffered when he went down the hole as his father Jose prepared a family paella.
It ends abruptly in the blockage of earth, sand and stones around three-quarters of the way down the 350ft well – believed to have been caused by a mini-landslide during the youngster’s plunge – which is preventing rescue teams reaching him.
The grainy images appear to show a plastic cup lying on top of the layer of earth which was recovered on Sunday alongside a bag of sweets Julen had in his hands when he disappeared and some hair which analysts have confirmed as the youngster’s.
Images taken from the video show the inside of the tunnel which Julen fell down
The video also shows the depth of the tunnel where two-year-old Julen is trapped
Officials involved in the massive search and rescue operation on land near Totalan a 30-minute drive from the Costa del Sol capital of Malaga, can be heard talking amongst each other as the camera is lowered down the 10-inch-wide borehole.
Today, there was a setback for the operation as it emerged rescuers have had to delay plans to excavate a horizontal tunnel across the hillside to try to reach Julen over fears they could cause a landslide.
They are now understood to be focusing on the other tunnel they were planning, a vertical tunnel they will create running parallel to the borehole Julen is in which is too narrow for an adult to fit into.
Jose Rosello (left), father of Julen who fell down a well, cries as rescue efforts continue to find the boy in Totalan, southern Spain
Julen Rosello’s mother Vicki was seen at the search site earlier on Wednesday
Casing work to shore up the inside of the well the youngster fell down is continuing.
The hold-ups are expected to affect the timetable of 24 to 48 hours officials said on Wednesday 16 January, they believed they would need to reach the youngster and determine whether he is dead or alive.
Progress on ‘sucking up’ the earth and stones in the blockage separating rescuers from Julen has been slow and has also been delayed by machinery failure.
This is the first picture of two-year-old Julen (pictured with his family), who has been trapped down a well for four days
Julen’s devastated parents Jose and Vicky, both 29, have spent most of the past four days and nights at the scene, sleeping on inflatable mattresses inside a tent, although they were persuaded to return to their home in the Malaga neighbourhood of El Palo briefly on Tuesday night to shower and pack a change of clothes.
Jose is expected to address waiting journalists later today to update them on the progress of the rescue operation.
Speaking at his first impromptu press conference on Wednesday he said: ‘We’re dead inside but with the hope we have an angel watching over us who is going to help him to come out alive as soon as possible.’
This photo posted by local firefighters show the small 15in-wide hole Julen fell down on Sunday afternoon
He spoke after telling Spanish media how his son fell down the borehole around 2pm on Sunday as he was getting more firewood for a paella he was preparing.
He told Malaga-based paper Sur: ‘My wife went to phone into work to let them know she wasn’t going.
‘She was with Julen and asked me to keep an eye on him as she made the call. He was only a few feet away.
The boy’s distraught mother, Vicky, waits anxiously for an update at the scene on Tuesday afternoon
‘I went to get a couple of logs for the fire for the paella and he began to run.
‘We saw how he fell down the hole, my cousin more than me because she was closer.’
Julen’s parents are being comforted by the father of a Spanish five-year-old girl killed by a paedophile in January 2008.
Juan Jose Cortes, who received a message of support from Gerry and Kate McCann after his daughter Mari Luz’s body was found, travelled to the search scene yesterday to meet Jose and fast food restaurant worker Vicky and is expected to return again later today.
A Swedish firm which helped locate the 33 Chilean miners rescued in 2010 after 69 days underground has joined the massive operation to try to locate Julen ahead of his hoped-for rescue alive.
Police insist they are working on the basis Julen is still alive. Privately officials have admitted the chances he will survive what could be around 120 hours underground in the best of scenarios, are slim unless he is in an air pocket and has access to water.
A massive rescue team are at the well with specialist equipment to ‘suck’ earth out of the well to reveal whether the boy is trapped underneath
Julen’s dad has said the borehole – on family-owned land – was made by a prospector at the request of his cousin’s boyfriend last month but no water had been found.
The prospector has told police he complied with the law by sealing the hole after it was made but Julen’s family say it had simply been covered with stones that weren’t properly laid.
In May 2017 the missing boy’s older brother Oliver died from a heart attack thought to be linked to a congenital heart defect.
Family members console each other on Tuesday as the rescue team worked round the clock to find the child
Julen’s grandmother Reme Garcia urged the two-year-old overnight on social media in an emotional message posted alongside a hand-drawn picture of a heart sketched inside an imaginary hole at the bottom of the borehole: ‘My little boy is here.
‘I’m waiting for you and I don’t know how to live without you. Hold on my little warrior. Don’t give up. You are a champion and your brother is with you. I love you.’
A report published by Spanish news website El Espanol at lunchtime on Wednesday claiming the boy’s body had been found in the well was dismissed as a false alarm by government officials and police.
The website later withdrew its report from its website, prompting anger from social media users and a tweet from a regional emergency services coordinator which said: ‘Don’t report false news.
‘Trust only official sources and don’t spread rumour or information that hasn’t been confirmed.’
Mission: More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers in southern Spain are searching for the two-year-old