10 Trapped in Cave Are Rescued

Applying dynamite, pumps and patience, rescuers cleared a flooded mountain tunnel Saturday to free eight Swiss explorers and two divers trapped in a hellish outdoor adventure high above the Doubs Gorge on the Swiss border.

The exhausted, mud-encrusted spelunkers emerged from the cliff-side cave entrance in a running stumble, hurling themselves into the arms of waiting parents and partners after more than 72 hours in a dank, subterranean prison where swiftly rising flood waters had threatened to drown them.

“They were all extremely tired and dirty, but they were still smiling as they came out. They were almost running,” said Peter Oberhaensli, the Swiss consul in the French city of Mulhouse, who had camped out here since early Thursday to act as liaison between the divers, rescue workers, police, doctors and nearly 50 family members who arrived to keep vigil.

All eight Swiss and two French divers, who had been trapped with them since Friday after ferrying in food and survival gear, were whisked off by ambulances to a hospital in Delemont, Switzerland. They will probably be released early today after overnight observation, as they appeared in good condition despite their ordeal, the Swiss diplomat reported.

The cave explorers--all students of social work at a college in Zurich--had entered the meandering network of tunnels and caverns extending nearly 1,400 feet into the craggy ridge in a group outing intended to test their “personal limits,” one school official told reporters after the group was trapped.

Local mountain rescue officials from this region replete with river and outdoor adventure opportunities had criticized the inexperienced cave explorers for embarking on their trip without adequate equipment or clothing and after a spate of torrential rainfall.

But the more than 300 French and Swiss involved in the rescue operation made clear after the spelunkers were led out smiling and crying that it was not the time for recriminations.

“It just felt so wonderful to have pulled it off. It was hard at times to stay hopeful,” said Thierry Boellat, a volunteer from Bern, Switzerland, who spent 65 hours heading one of the rescue teams that had been battling to pump water out of the cave entrance faster than rainfall drainage and an underground spring could replenish it.

As he peeled off muddy rubber waders and looked forward to “a beer and a bath,” he said the dramatic rock formations and rivers of the Doubs region present unpredictable risks even for more experienced spelunkers.

“The hydrology of this area is tricky. I don’t think it’s fair to say that what they did was stupid. There are people who have lived here all their lives who might have made the same mistake,” he told reporters.

The Swiss, ages 23 to 35, were forced to huddle together on a rock ledge above the floor of the cave when water gushed in late Wednesday, completely filling the tunnel between their refuge and the entrance. The first pumps brought in were overwhelmed by the steady inundation, forcing rescue workers to weigh the risks of leaving the trapped explorers in their dank air pocket amid rising waters or outfitting them with diving equipment so they could swim through nearly 300 feet of flooded, pitch-black tunnel. Throughout the protracted operation, the rescue teams advised patience until the water subsided.

“We didn’t know what we would find when we went back to them late Friday,” said Jean-Marc Chaput, one of two divers forced to stay with the spelunkers for 28 hours after the water currents became too strong to swim through. He said the group’s spirits were kept up by one of the young male students who kept members talking and hopeful that help was near.

A high-powered pump able to move 3,000 gallons a minute was flown in by helicopter Saturday morning, and engineers set off small explosions below the cave entrance to create new fissures through which water could escape.

By late afternoon, cascades gushed from below the hillside, and the tunnel became passable again just before nightfall. The 10 prisoners scrambled out through knee-deep mud churned up by the water, protected from the muck and chill by wetsuits brought in by the divers.

“Thank you for the help. Thank you for everything,” one of the Swiss men told LCI television as he emerged to safety and to the cheers of dozens of rescue workers, medical personnel and police on the scene.

Although overnight temperatures dropped to the 40s, the insulated wetsuits helped prevent hypothermia during the group’s third night in the cavern.

Local officials and rescue leaders had insisted since making contact with the explorers early Friday that they were confident of eventual success in bringing them out alive. But a general relief was nevertheless palpable after the rescue. Onlookers broke into applause when the first three spelunkers pulled themselves from the cliff-side entrance along a rope pulley that had been run through the tunnel to guide them, and authorities who had said little in the previous few hours were jubilant.

“I can tell you they are all fine,” a beaming Alain Gehain, governor of the surrounding region, announced to journalists.

“This is the first time I’ve been involved in such a long rescue operation,” said Pierre Prudat, a volunteer from the nearby Swiss town of Porrentruy. “And I hope it is the last one like this. It was very tense.”