The professional speleologist was trapped by a rise in waters in the Sassenage tanks, near Grenoble. The middle school students, educated in fifth, had been able to go out in time.
Le Monde with AFP
A professional speleologist who supervised a college student on Thursday, May 5, in a cave in Isère, was found dead by the emergency services after a rise in the waters, the other participants being safe and sound, announced the prefecture .
At the end of the morning, during its rise to the surface, the group was surprised by the rise of the waters in the Sassenage tanks, a cave close to Grenoble. The accompanying people brought all the children out, college students educated in fifth in a college in Saint-Ismier (Isère). But three adults – two guides and a teacher – remained blocked underground, including the deceased speleologist.
Two other adults found safe and sound
An evacuation operation was launched “as soon as a favorable weather window presented itself”, after 7:30 p.m., specifies the prefecture in a press release.
“During their progress, the emergency services discovered a body identified as that of one of the two guides,” she adds. The teacher and the second guide, refugees in an underground cavity, were found safe, and brought back to the surface.
The Grenoble prosecution has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident. The intervention mobilized the group of recognition and intervention in perilous environments (GRIMP), the firefighters and the Speleo rescue of Isère, the CRS Alpes, the Samu, the high mountain gendarmerie peloton (PGHM) as well as The gendarmerie group of Isère.