Trapped American explorer sends video message from inside Turkish cave
Rescue teams in Turkey have successfully carried stricken American researcher Mark Dickey up from the depths of the Morca cave in Mersin province’s Taurus mountains to within just 180 metres of the surface and now say he should be free “today or tomorrow”.
“The rescue team is currently moving Mark to -180 meters,” the Turkish Caving Federation posted in an update on Monday morning.
“The rescue operation will continue from the -180 meters after Mark has rested at the camp here for a while. If everything goes well, it is aimed to rescue Mark completely by tonight or tomorrow.”
The well-known speleologist, 40, became trapped inside the cave 1,040 metres below the surface on Saturday 2 September after suffering from bleeding of the digestive tract.
An international team of more than 150 cave rescuers and medical personnel had been working to stabilise him before launching the daring extraction operation.
Rescue teams have been using explosives to blast open passages of the cave to safely retrieve Mr Dickey via a stretcher.
