Pictured: Spanish boy who rescuers are trying to save from well

Spanish rescuers working against the clock to find a missing 2-year-old toddler say they have found hair of the boy in soil extracted from a narrow borehole that is 100 meters (330 feet) deep.

The discovery is giving them renewed confidence that the toddler, named Julen, could be at a deeper section than machinery and surveillance equipment has reached. 

The search for Julen, who fell in the unmarked hole Sunday after walking away from his parents, is getting increasingly desperate as it enters its third day.

The government’s representative in the Malaga province says DNA tests have given rescuers ‘scientific evidence that the minor is there.’ Maria Gamez also said that workers are aiming to dig a side tunnel to reach the shaft.

Adults can’t enter the waterhole, whose diameter is narrower than 25 centimeters (10 inches).

Earlier today the toddler’s father told of the moment he watched his son plunge down the borehole.

This is the first picture of two-year-old Julen (pictured with his family), who has been trapped down a well for four days

Jose Rosello, 29, was preparing a Sunday lunchtime paella at a countryside property near Totalan, a 30-minute drive from the Costa del Sol capital of Malaga when son Julen vanished.

Recalling the gut-wrenching moment, he told a Spanish TV programme: ‘I was putting some more wood on for the fire and ran towards him.

‘My cousin was nearer and threw herself on the ground as I reached the orifice. He had already gone. I heard him cry at first but then I didn’t hear him cry anymore.’

Fighting back tears in an emotional message to his son, he said: ‘The only thing I can say is stay calm Julen. Daddy loves you and your brother is going to help us.’

In an interview with Malaga-based paper Sur he added: ‘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.

‘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.’

The boy's distraught mother, Vicky, waits anxiously for an update at the scene on Tuesday afternoon

The boy’s distraught mother, Vicky, waits anxiously for an update at the scene on Tuesday afternoon

This photo posted by local firefighters show the small 15in-wide hole Julen fell down on Sunday afternoon

This photo posted by local firefighters show the small 15in-wide hole Julen fell down on Sunday afternoon

He also confirmed to the paper that the borehole had been made by a prospector at the request of his cousin’s boyfriend 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 insist it had simply been covered with stones that weren’t properly laid.  

Spanish government officials say Julen Rosello’s mother and father face a near-48-hour agonising wait for news on whether their son can be saved.  

Parents Jose and Vicky, both 29, have spent day and night near the spot where Julen vanished down a 10-inch borehole.

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.

Civil Guard officers leading the operation have not yet spotted the youngster on a rotating camera lowered into the borehole on a robot, spotting only a bag of sweets and a plastic cup by a blockage of sand and earth 250ft down the 350ft hole.

Today, work was continuing on the excavation of two new tunnels which officials said yesterday afternoon would take around two days to complete.

One is a vertical hole running parallel to the existing well and the other is a horizontal tunnel being dug across the hillside in the direction of the well Julen is trapped in.

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

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

Mine rescue experts flown in from Asturias in northern Spain plan to excavate the last part of the 165ft-long horizontal tunnel by hand after the introduction of a camera rescuers hope will be able to pinpoint Julen along with specialist equipment used in the Chilean mining rescue.

Police insist they are working on the basis Julen is still alive, although privately officials have admitted the chances he will have survived what could be around 100 hours underground are slim.

Julen’s three-year-old brother Oliver died in May 2017 after suffering a heart attack believed to have been linked to a congenital heart defect.

Family members console each other yesterday as the rescue team worked round the clock to find the child

Family members console each other yesterday as the rescue team worked round the clock to find the child

Mission: More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers in southern Spain are searching for the two-year-old 

Mission: More than 100 firefighters and emergency workers in southern Spain are searching for the two-year-old 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk