Cavers rescued as waters rise

Published on Monday 6 October 2008 00:46

CAVE divers helped to rescue 25 potholers who were trapped underground by rising waters yesterday.

The alarm was raised at 8:30pm on Saturday, when a woman rang the police to say her friends had not returned from a caving expedition to Ireby Fell cavern on Leck Fell in Ingleton, on the North Yorkshire border.

Some 70 volunteers from the Cave Rescue Organisation, Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Organisation and the Cave Diving Group worked with officers from North Yorkshire and Lancashire police to lead the trapped expedition from the cave system in a 16-hour rescue operation.

Two men who were trapped beyond the main party were led to safety through an underground sump by the Cave Diving Group. One woman was treated for hypothermia. There were no reported injuries.

Ireby Fell cavern is made up of a series of sandy passages leading to a sump and is popular with cavers of all abilities, but notorious for flooding in wet weather.

In a separate incident, volunteers from the Cave Rescue Organisation rescued seven cavers from Sunset Hole, a cave system north of Ingleton, near Chapel-le-Dale, in North Yorkshire.

The seven men were escorted safely from the caves by 9:45pm on Saturday.

It is understood there had been a weekend of events for potholers in Ingleton.