A 5-year-old boy trapped for three days down a remote Afghan village well had died, several Taliban officials said on Friday. 

The child, named Haidar, slipped Tuesday to the bottom of a well being dug in Shokak, a parched village in Zabul province, around 400 kilometres southwest of the capital Kabul.

"With great sorrow, young Haidar is separated from us forever," Taliban interior ministry senior adviser Anas Haqqani posted on Twitter which was retweeted by several of his colleagues.

Rescuers worked through the night to try to reach the boy, who Taliban officials said was still alive on Friday morning, but an official said that a large rock was blocking their final access to the shaft, according to Agence France-Presse.

Officials said the boy slipped to the bottom of the 25-metre (80-foot) shaft, but was pulled by rope to about 10-metres before becoming stuck.

The operation comes around two weeks after a similar attempt to rescue a boy from a Moroccan well gripped the world, but ended with the child found dead.

The ordeal of "little Rayan" gained global attention and sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the Arabic Twitter hashtag #SaveRayan trending.

(With inputs from agencies)