Luca Olmetto, 31, from Condrongianos, the Sardinian hiker trapped ten meters deep since yesterday afternoon in the Gorroppeddu cave, in Urzulei, due to a landslide that blocked the entrance to the cave, is alive and conscious .
The rescuers managed to contact him by voice, and Olmetto responded.
Operations to reach and rescue the caver continued throughout the night and will continue into the morning. Dozens of specialists from the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps and firefighters are working on the scene, along with a team from the Tortolì Fire Brigade detachment, Speleo-Alpine-Fluvial (SAF) teams from the Nuoro command, and 16 USAR Medium units airlifted to Gorropeddu by the Decimomannu Air Force. A forward command post has also been set up nearby to coordinate operations. CNSAS operators and several Civil Protection units from Dorgali are also present to provide support.
The young man, who was hiking with his girlfriend, was caught in a landslide of earth and rocks . The woman escaped, but the young caver was trapped 10 meters underground: alive but injured, practically buried by the debris.
The operations to reach it are proving very complicated: there is a lot of material to remove, and several unstable boulders that require caution when moving to avoid them collapsing as well .
Thanks to the support of the Italian Air Force, three additional Alpine and Speleological Rescue technicians specialized in clearing obstructions from central Italy and eight other Sardinian technicians were transferred by helicopter.
The cave in question is called Nurra Gorroppeddu, located at 883 meters above sea level, in a rugged area that's difficult to reach by car . Olmetto was about halfway through the cave, about ten meters from the entrance, when he was nearly buried by a landslide of earth and rocks that trapped him.
(Unioneonline)
