German rescuers on Thursday brought to safety an injured caver, ending his 11-day ordeal and a massive recovery operation deep below the Bavarian Alps.
“The victim has been brought to the surface and is receiving emergency medical care,” said a mountain rescue official after the team reached the mouth of the cave, where a helicopter was waiting,at 03:15 IST.Explorer Johann Westhauser(52) suffered serious head injuries in the accident about 1,000 metres below ground in the Riesending cave complex, Germany’s longest and deepest.
Since then a multi-national team of hundreds of emergency personnel battled around the clock in a complex and costly operation to bring him to the surface.Rescuers placed Westhauser on a fibreglass stretcher and negotiated a treacherous and labyrinth-like network of tunnels and chambers, underground lakes and ice-cold waterfalls.The rescue operation involved rest periods in five bivouac stops, followed by a major final hoist up a 180-metre vertical shaft near the entrance to the cave,officials said.
The rescue effort, high in the mountains near the Austrian border, has involved professional cavers, medical personnel and helicopter crews, from Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Croatia.