Three-year-old boy rescued alive from 15-metre-deep well in central Spain

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The child had fallen into the cavity of an old waterwheel in Toledo, making his rescue an extremely difficult extraction

J. M. L.

Toledo

Monday, 20 April 2026, 14:03

Firefighters from Toledo's provincial firefighting and rescue service experienced one of their most challenging operations this past weekend: the rescue of a three-year-old boy who had fallen down a 15-metre-deep well.

The firefighters received the emergency call on Saturday afternoon. Once at the location where the child had fallen - a plot of land in Tembleque (Toledo) near the Cristo del Valle shrine and chapel - they discovered a small cavity, approximately 30 centimetres wide, that had once been part of a waterwheel. The boy's family was with him as they had alerted the authorities of the incident.

The rescue operation, carried out by nine firefighters from the Toledo brigades stationed in the towns of Orgaz and Villacañas, as well as the on-duty commander from Toledo, had a happy ending, as the boy was rescued alive.

However, the rescue proved very tricky indeed. The entrance to the well was very narrow "and we decided that, while one of the firefighters went down to support the boy, the others would devise a system to pull them both out from the depths", explained fire sergeant Alejandro Cepeda.

The young boy, who had suffered multiple injuries, was conscious throughout the ordeal. They had to pull him out while keeping his body as rigid as possible to avoid further injury. His difficult rescue lasted two hours and, once back above ground, he was treated by a medical team and transported by emergency ambulance to the University Hospital of Toledo.

As is the norm with such incidents, the Guardia Civil has already opened an investigation to determine how the child managed to fall into the well and why the cover was open so as to establish any potential liability. Regarding this matter, according to Tembleque's mayor, Jesús Fernández, "these plots of land are open to the public and anyone can access them, so this can happen".