In Slovenia, a group of people were trapped in the Križna Cave, a popular tourist destination
Kyiv • UNN
Five people are trapped in Slovenia's Križna Jama cave due to rising water. Rescuers have been sent to help, but it may take several days to free the tourists.
Yesterday, five people - a family of three on a commercial excursion and two cavers - were trapped in the popular Križna cave (municipality of Cerknica, Slovenia) due to rising water levels. Rescuers and divers were sent to the scene.
The withdrawal of the group may take several days, UNN reports with reference to RTV Slovenija.
Details
On Saturday, a guide and a trainee guide led three visitors aged 22 to 58 - a mother, a father and their adult daughter - on a tour of the Križna Jama cave, which has underground lakes. Due to heavy rain, the water level in the cave began to rise, and people could no longer get out.
Since the visitors did not leave the cave until 15:00, the duty officer went to check what was happening, and it turned out that the cave was flooded. A signal was sent to the Cave Rescue Service and a rescue operation was launched.
The tourists are reported to be trapped in a part of the cave called Kryzhna Gora, in a horizontal tunnel located more than two kilometers from the cave entrance. They are now on the shelf ten meters above the water surface.
In the cave, you paddle from lake to lake, and you have to carry the boat over boulders. This time the group reached the last part of the cave, examined it on land, and when they returned, they noticed that part of the cave was almost completely flooded, with water almost up to the ceiling
It is reported that the tourists, accompanied by an experienced guide, also an employee of the speleological service, and a trainee guide, returned to the dry part, which is equipped for such a case - a tent or a bivouac is set up there. The divers reached the group at night, which took them three hours upstream and one hour back. All the missing people in the cave were found in good psychological and physical condition and provided with the most necessary things - food, warm clothes, torches and basic medicines.
For your reference
Križna Jama (Slovene: Križna jama), translated as "the cave of the Cross," is located near the village of Podlož (Notransko Kraška region, Slovenia). The cave is known for its network of more than 45 underground lakes of emerald-colored water.
Containing 44 species of organisms, the cave is the fourth most biodiverse cave system in the world. The cave was first registered in 1832 and first explored by Slovenian cavers in 1926. The bones of a cave bear were found in the cave. Current length of the cave: 8273 м.
Rescuers are waiting for a favorable moment
According to the Karst Research Institute, the water level will continue to rise slightly in the next few hours, "but we expect the water to start falling overnight, but the fall will not be as fast as the rise.
As the floodwaters also come from neighboring Croatia, where it is still raining, it is not yet clear when the water will recede enough to rescue those trapped. The cave's "prisoners" will have to swim part of the way out - the authorities cannot organize a rescue with diving equipment due to the inexperience of the three visitors.
If the water level is low, everything can go very quickly, but otherwise we have a 12-hour shift of care for stranded persons somewhere, so if the water doesn't drop, that system will be 12 hours, but if the water drops, the commander, the head of the technical dive unit, intervened with his men and moved the family and their guides to safety on land
