French and Romanian tourists trapped in bat cave saved after seven hours

A flash flood trapped 11 people in the Huda lui Papara cave in Romania's Trascau Mountains, Alba county, on Monday afternoon. It took rescuers seven hours to get them out.

The cave hosts the largest colony of bats in Europe, which draws tourists as well as researchers to the site.

Alina Marescu, a spokeswoman for the Alba Emergency Situations Inspectorate, told local Mediafax that two adults and nine teenagers remained trapped in the dangerous cave. Four of them were French while two were experienced speleologists.

The first person was taken out of the cave at around 21:00, with the rest being rescued by 22:10.

This is not the first such incident that occurs at the Huda lui Papara cave. Six years ago, a flood trapped three people in the cave. The intervention team managed to rescue them after some 16 hours.

Huda lui Papara is the longest cave in Trascau Mountains, and the specialists say it is also a very dangerous one.

The entrance is 40m high, but not wider than 6m at the base. The first obstacle in exploring the cave is a 50m lake that has a depth of up to 2m. Right after the lake, those who explore the cave will find the Evantai Waterfall, a block of stone that they have to climb to move forward.

Irina Popescu, [email protected]

(Photo source: Hudaluipapara.com)