Munirah’s body was found partially sunk in the mud by a Civil Defense team after a night of digging from a nearby well to the bore well. The rescuers descended to the bottom of the bore well in a capsule equipped with oxygen cylinders and cameras.

The body was taken to King Faisal Hospital in Taif.

The accident occurred on Jan. 2 when Munirah and her relatives were picnicking at a location close to Shenaif town northeast of Taif, according to her husband Salman Al-Otaibi.

Workers from an international company dug two new wells as designed by Civil Defense. The last of the two wells was 60 meters deep and was dug three meters away from the well in which the woman was trapped. A third well was dug to bring down the water level in the first well, said spokesman of Civil Defense in Taif Lt. Col. Khaled Al-Qahtani.

The digging of a trench from the second well to the location of the body in the bore well was completed on Wednesday.

Rescuers from the Civil Defense have been battling since the night of Jan. 2 hours after the woman fell into the artesian well full of water.

The operations were made extremely difficult by two factors: the narrow mouth and the high level of water in the well.

When initial attempts to manually lift the woman out failed, the Civil Defense brought in advanced detection and rescue devices. Attempts to determine the exact location of the woman with the help of a thermal camera also failed.

The tragic end of Munirah has also brought to the fore the danger posed by abandoned wells in remote areas in many parts of the Kingdom.

Many of these abandoned wells are located in desert areas, are unmarked and do not even have fences to warn passersby. Small quarries in deserts dug for sand and rock to build nearby roads are also particular hot spots of tragedy, especially following heavy rains when they fill up.

Last Friday, an SUV carrying two men nearly fell into an abandoned well in Al-Ais in Madinah province. A fragile fence stopped the vehicle short of nose-diving into the well. The driver and his companion were injured.

Locals say there are 24 abandoned wells in that area.

In another accident on Friday, an 18-year-old boy drowned in a waterlogged pit in Badr, close to the Madinah-Yanbu Highway.