Rome, Dec. 16, (dpa/GNA) – A huge rescue operation is under way in Italy for a cave explorer who is stuck more than 500 metres underground after a fall.
More than 100 rescuers were working in the mountains near the northern Italian city of Bergamo on Monday.
The 32-year-old woman suffered multiple fractures in the fall in the extensive Abisso Bueno Fonteno cave. She was trapped in the same cave once before – in July 2023 – and rescued after two days.
The cave explorer is a member of a project that has been working in the huge cave on the northern shore of Lake Iseo for several years. One of the aims of the project is to create accurate maps.
According to the rescue services, the woman was exploring a previously unknown part of the cave on Saturday. While descending into a narrow tunnel, she lost her footing and slid several metres down. Her companions then raised the alarm.
The rescuers expressed confidence of safely returning the injured woman above ground. Doctors were on site. She asked the team to pass on a message to her life partner: “Tell him I’m fine.”
The accident site is about a four-hour walk from the cave’s entrance. Rescuers have been using explosives to widen some particularly narrow passages to allow a stretcher to pass through.
GNA