Clock ticks ... a rescue worker descends into the Riesending underground cave where an explorer is lying injured 1000 meters below. Source: Getty Images
THE clock is ticking on the perilous rescue of an explorer who was seriously injured in a fall in Germany's deepest and longest cave system.
Johann Westhauser, 52, has been stuck 1000 meters underground since suffering head injuries in a rock fall on Sunday inside the Riesending cave system near the town Berchtesgaden in southern Germany.
Two doctors finally reached Westhauser on Thursday, according to the BBC, saying once he is treated the operation to stretcher him out could begin.
However, the process was expected to take days because of the narrow shafts and vertical lifting involved.
Help is here ... rescue workers arrive by helicopter near the entrance to the Riesending underground cave. Source: Getty Images
The Mirror reports that Westhauser, who first discovered the cave in 2002, was showing the first signs of hypothermia as the temperature underground never rises above three degrees C.
He also faces the danger of further rock falls and flash floods.
Westhauser was spelunking with two colleagues when the rock fall happened some 6000 meters from the entrance.
A 42-year-old member of the expedition climbed out of the cave on his own to get help and it took a team of four first responders 12 hours to reach the stricken man on Monday.
Difficult operation ... a cave and mountain rescue expert from Germany, second left, talks to his colleagues after his descent into the cave. Source: AP
A team building the bivouac stations set up a telephone line at a depth of 400 metres to facilitate the operation.
A total of around 200 helpers have deployed from across the region to assist in the operation.
"The conditions are extremely narrow. The rescue won't be easy," doctor Christoph Specht told rolling news channel NTV on Tuesday. "There are only a few people in Germany who know how to handle such a rescue."
The labyrinth-like Riesending cave — "massive thing" in German — is more than 19 kilometres long and up to 1148 metres deep.
'Massive thing' ... a spelunker explores the cave, which is over 20km long and up to 1148 meters deep. Source: Getty Images
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