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American Morning

Eight Swiss Tourists Trapped in Cave for Two Days

Aired May 18, 2001 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to start with the life-and- death situation in France near the border. We understand that a rescue operation is under way at a flooded cave where eight Swiss tourists have been trapped for about two days. The tourists, all of them students at a school for social workers, are said to be in good condition right now. Their Rescue operation, though, to get them out could take hours because part of the cave that they're in has to be dried out before a safe passage can be created for them.

Let's check in now with our Peter Humi who's joining us now from - on the telephone with the very latest on this story - Peter.

PETER HUMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, well, let me - let me bring you right up to date. It appears that the eight people, seven of them students, one of them a teacher, all of them from Switzerland, they went down into this cave near the French-Swiss border, in fact, on Wednesday evening - almost two days down there. Rescuers have feared for their lives, obviously.

Heavy rain, officials said, that they feared a lot of the caves, which weren't particularly deep but nevertheless very winding, would have filled with water. And there've been a massive attempt to rescue these eight people in the past 24 hours or so since the alarm was first raised and they feared they might have drowned. But finally, some good news local time this morning, Friday morning, a diver had swum through the flooded caves and found the eight potholers perched on a ridge a few feet above the rising water levels.

Now the biggest task right now is how to get them out. There's been several plans considered. Possibly one, including digging a hole down about 40 yards to get them out that way, but it appears that the pumping operation to get the flood waters out of the cave appears to be the way that rescue officials want to extricate these people. And that's the plan right now, according to the very latest news from the French-Swiss border.

The eight are described as, obviously, extremely exhausted, very weak. They have been provided with some warm food, blankets and so on while they await the next few hours. They should be out, according to officials down in the east of France, the Alpine region, they should be out by the end of the day hopefully safe and sound. - Leon.

HARRIS: Peter, and this may be a strange question, but any idea what the temperatures are like inside there? Can they hang out for long down there without suffering any hypothermia or anything?

HUMI: Well, I think hypothermia is certainly going to be a - is certainly a concern. The weather there, or rather the temperature, I should say, it is below ground. It does usually tend to be a wee bit warmer than it would be above ground but obviously with the rain and the damp adding to the hardship.

Now, ironically talking of hardships, the eight, all of them were from a school for social workers, had originally set off on this as an exercise, if you like, as part of their course. It was aimed to help - quote - "develop an ability to face challenges in their future careers." They've certainly faced a challenge here, not one they would otherwise usually meet as social workers, so quite a tough couple of days for these Swiss students and their teacher.

HARRIS: Sounds like they're going to get some extra credit for that project in this particular case. Are they in good spirits then?

HUMI: Well, I think they - once they made contact with a diver - I mean we haven't heard, you know, what their spirits actually are. They've obviously been - must have come as an enormous relief to the eight trapped inside to suddenly see a diver emerge out of the water in this cave system. I should add, also, that none of these eight people were really exert potholers. It was in most cases, I believe I heard on the French media, it was really the first time they'd gone down there.

And other, more experienced potholers in the region say, well, because of all the heavy rains and the risk of flooding and getting cutoff in these caves - there are lots of these caves in the foothills of the Alps on the Swiss-French borders by the way. It is a - it is a pastime that is carried out by many hundreds of people most of them tend to be a little bit more professional and they say, well, they wouldn't have gone down under such conditions. So maybe a little - a little questions there due to the organizers of this trip as to why they sent them down under such apparently unfavorable or risky conditions.

HARRIS: Well, at any rate then, hopefully this will have a happy ending sometime fairly soon. Thanks much.

Peter Humi reporting live for us this morning.

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