Rescue for trapped Spanish boy reaches critical hours

Spanish authorities say that rescue experts are using explosives to make their way through a 4-meter (13-foot) wall of hard rock to reach the space where a 2-year-old boy has been trapped for 12 days.

The government’s office in the southern province of Malaga says Friday that it took around 16 hours to dig the first half.

The country is holding its breath and following every turn of events in the frantic effort to recover Julen Rosello, who fell down a narrow 110-meter (360-foot) deep borehole on Jan. 13.

A 70-meter parallel shaft has been drilled to carry miners and Civil Guard experts on explosives.

The only sign of the toddler found so far is hair that matched his DNA. Officials have refused to comment on whether the boy could have survived so long.