Sixteen- and 17-year-old treated for hypothermia after being found by rescue dogs in underground burial ground

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Two teenagers were rescued from the catacombs beneath Paris on Wednesday after being lost for three days in the pitch-black tunnels of the underground burial ground.



The two, aged 16 and 17, were taken to hospital and were treated for hypothermia after being found by search teams and rescue dogs in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

“It was thanks to the dogs that we found them,” a spokesman for the Paris fire service said.

New life in the kingdom of death: the plan to redevelop subterranean Paris Read more

A network of about 150 miles (250km) of underground tunnels forms a maze beneath Paris, with only a small section open to the public at an official visitors’ site in southern Paris.

Entering the other galleries has been against the law since 1955, but schoolchildren and partygoers have been known to access them through secret entrance points.

The transfer of human remains from Parisian cemeteries to the tunnels began towards the end of the 18th century for public health reasons, with the bones of approximately 6 million people found there.

The ambient temperature in the dank narrow passageways is about 15C.

It was not clear who raised the alarm about the missing teenagers or why they got lost. The operator of the Catacombs museum, a popular attraction where queues are sometimes several hours long, stressed that no one had ever got lost in the two kilometres of tunnels open to the public.