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Rescuers try to save potholers
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300余人营救被困探险者
MORE than 300 rescue workers were trying last night to save eight Swiss potholers(洞穴探险者) trapped in a cave in eastern France by rising water.
A diver sent into the cave at Goumois in the Doubs d'artement failed to find any trace of them, adding to fears that they have drowned(淹死). Their only chance of survival would be climbing on to a ledge(岩脊) above the water.
The student social workers from Zurich(苏黎士) have been trapped in the cave, known locally as the Bief Parou, since Wednesday evening when it flooded after heavy rainfall.
A local potholer, Jean Jacques Compagnon, who has been into the cave twice in the past 12 years, said that he was pessimistic(悲观). “The cave is narrow, winding and dangerous when it rains. If the group is in the water, it is difficult to survive for more than 12 hours. Their chances depend upon their experience and their morale(
士气).”
Jeanne-Marie Taillard, the Mayor of Goumois, was more hopeful, saying that there was a ledge in the cave that could enable the potholers to remain alive for much longer. “We must just hope that they have got on to this ledge,”she said.
The mayor said that the passageway(
过道) leading to the cave acted like a plughole(塞孔) during heavy rain, sucking(吸入) water in at the astonishing rate of 450 cubic metres a second.
About 150 rescue workers, mostly French but with help from some Swiss teams, were at the isolated mountainside site last night with pumping equipment to reduce the water level.
But although ten pumps were in operation, the cave was still flooded and the level was descending only slowly, according to the diver sent into the cave.
Other divers were making further attempts to find the potholers throughout last night.
The trapped group is made up of seven students, five men and two women, from the Higher School for Social Work Studies in Zurich. They are aged between 20 and 30 and are accompanied by a professional potholer.
The students are among a group of 14 on a course organised by Altamaria, a Swiss potholing centre based in Bettinge.
A group of seven visited the cave on Wednesday morning and returned safely. They raised the alarm when their fellow students failed to return.
May 18, 2001
The Times
The Times
The Times
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