Injured Italian caver Ottavia Piana freed after 75-hour rescue

Caver Ottavia Piana has been airlifted to hospital after a painstaking rescue deep underground in a cave system in the Bergamo area of northern Italy.

Piana, 32, had been exploring an uncharted area of the Abisso Bueno Fonteno cave on Saturday afternoon when a rock gave way beneath her feet and she fell 5-6m (16-19ft), sustaining injuries to her vertebrae, ribs, face and knee.

More than 150 volunteers, led by Italy’s Alpine and cave rescue corps, took part in the operation, and her stretcher was brought out at about 03:00 (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

Piana is an experienced speleologist, and this was the second time in 17 months that she was rescued from the cave system.

“She’s tired, exhausted and in pain…We have succeeded,” said Giorgio Pannuzzo, a rescue volunteer who was with her at the time of the accident on Saturday.

“There was a freezing wind right by the entrance [to the cave] and if we’d stopped she would have suffered even more from the cold. So we were in a rush,” he told Italian media.

Piana was taking part in a project to map a previously unknown area of the Abisso Bueno Fonteno cave system when she fell.

The area between Lake Iseo and Lake Endine comprises a network of caves, tunnels and underground galleries, the majority of which have never been explored.

Rescuers spoke of a race against time to get her out because of her injuries. Dozens of volunteers took turns to carry her stretcher and clear the many obstructions that got in their way.

They had to navigate narrow tunnels and at times use small explosive charges to get her out.

The CNSAS Alpine rescue service said 159 volunteers from 13 Italian regions took part in the operation. “The injured woman was constantly monitored and assisted by a total of six doctors and eight nurses,” it said. “The rescue operation went on uninterrupted for 75 hours.”

During the operation, Piana told her doctors that she never wanted to set foot in the cave again.