10-Year-Old Boy Falls 15 Meters Into Well, Dies

The workers and other children at the summer camp that Vincenzo, 10, attended, shouted at him to get down and move away from the well. They couldn’t stop him. The child fell into an artesian well in Palazzolo Acreide, in the province of Syracuse, and died. They were all at a summer camp organized by the Anffas Foundation “Doniamo un Sorriso”. The child climbed onto the lid of a 15-meter deep well that was half full of water. Here he fell. There was an immediate attempt to save the child. An operator from the group tried to lower herself into the well.

The child’s parents witnessed the rescue attempts and rescue operations. The colonel of the Carabinieri, Gabriele Barecchia, explained: «I arrived on site when the operator was taken to the emergency room in a state of shock. The woman allegedly tried to go down, then went into a panic attack and was unable to continue the descent and was then rescued by the firefighters. The child was found in the non-visible part of the well, at the point where it widens. His body was on the surface of the water, probably his lungs had not filled with water but the autopsy will clarify. He may have hit his head, but when we arrived not even the water was moving».

There The Syracuse prosecutor’s office has opened an investigationstill against unknown persons, which hypothesizes the crime of manslaughter. They are trying to ascertain the dynamics of the tragedy and to understand if the well was reported.

Celebrations in honor of St. Paul the Apostle have been suspended. The message from the parish priest and the festival committee: «We are certain that with this decision we are interpreting the feeling of collective grief for the loss of little Vincenzo so as to be able to express our closeness to the family». Tomorrow at 10 pm there will be a prayer vigil for little Vincenzo.