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Rescue Begins of Ailing US Researcher Stuck Deep Inside Turkish Cave, Turkish Officials Say

US caver Mark Dickey is seen in Morca Cave, days before he fell ill and became trapped some 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) underground, near Anamur in Mersin province, southern Türkiye, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)
US caver Mark Dickey is seen in Morca Cave, days before he fell ill and became trapped some 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) underground, near Anamur in Mersin province, southern Türkiye, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)
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Rescue Begins of Ailing US Researcher Stuck Deep Inside Turkish Cave, Turkish Officials Say

US caver Mark Dickey is seen in Morca Cave, days before he fell ill and became trapped some 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) underground, near Anamur in Mersin province, southern Türkiye, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)
US caver Mark Dickey is seen in Morca Cave, days before he fell ill and became trapped some 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) underground, near Anamur in Mersin province, southern Türkiye, August 28, 2023. (Reuters)

Rescue teams began the arduous process Saturday of extricating an American researcher who became seriously ill while he was 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) below the entrance of a cave in Türkiye, an official from Türkiye’s disaster management agency said.

It could take days to bring Mark Dickey to the surface since rescuers anticipate he will have to stop and rest frequently at camps set up along the way as they pull his stretcher through the narrow passages.

“This afternoon, the operation to move him from his camp at 1040 meters to the camp at 700 meters began,” the official from the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate told The Associated Press.

The 40-year-old experienced caver began vomiting because of stomach bleeding while on an expedition with a handful of others in the Morca cave in southern Türkiye’s Taurus Mountains.

Teams of rescuers from across Europe have rushed to Dickey’s aid. A Hungarian doctor reached and treated him inside the cave on Sept. 3. Doctors and rescuers have since been taking turns caring for him.

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2 Elephants Die in Flash Flooding in Northern Thailand

This handout photo taken and released on October 3, 2024 by the Elephant Nature Park shows elephants standing in flood waters at the sanctuary in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai province. (Photo by Handout / ELEPHANT NATURE PARK / AFP)
This handout photo taken and released on October 3, 2024 by the Elephant Nature Park shows elephants standing in flood waters at the sanctuary in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai province. (Photo by Handout / ELEPHANT NATURE PARK / AFP)
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2 Elephants Die in Flash Flooding in Northern Thailand

This handout photo taken and released on October 3, 2024 by the Elephant Nature Park shows elephants standing in flood waters at the sanctuary in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai province. (Photo by Handout / ELEPHANT NATURE PARK / AFP)
This handout photo taken and released on October 3, 2024 by the Elephant Nature Park shows elephants standing in flood waters at the sanctuary in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai province. (Photo by Handout / ELEPHANT NATURE PARK / AFP)

Two elephants drowned during flash flooding in popular Thai tourist hotspot Chiang Mai, their sanctuary said Sunday, as local authorities evacuated visitors from their hotels and shops closed in the city center.

More than 100 elephants at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai province were moved to higher ground to escape rapidly rising flood waters, an employee who gave her name as Dada, told AFP.

But two elephants -- named in local media as 16-year-old Fahsai and 40-year-old Ploython, who was blind -- were found dead on Saturday.

"My worst nightmare came true when I saw my elephants floating in the water," Saengduean Chailert, the director of the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand, told local media.

"I will not let this happen again, I will not make them run from such a flood again," she said, vowing to move them to higher ground ahead of next year's monsoon.

In Chiang Mai city center, people waded through muddy water close to knee height in the night bazaar, and water flowed into the central train station, which has now been closed.

Tourists were forced to evacuate hotels and a local TV station showed a monk carrying a coffin through floodwaters to a cremation site.

Major inundations have struck parts of northern Thailand as recent heavy downpours caused the Ping River to reach "critical" levels, according to the district office. The water level peaked on Saturday but had receded slightly by Sunday.

Thailand's northern provinces have been hit by large floods since Typhoon Yagi struck the region in early September, with one district reporting its worst inundations in 80 years.

Twenty provinces are currently flooded, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said Sunday.