Chinese diver survives 5 days trapped in underwater cave, rescued after final signal
As reported by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the man, known only as Wang and believed to be in his 40s, disappeared on July 19 while diving in a local river with a friend.
(Also read: China's first robot joins PhD programme in drama and film to study traditional opera)
The river, known for its depth and complex cave networks, features an underwater cave entrance around nine metres below the surface. Wang vanished just five minutes into the dive, prompting his friend to raise the alarm.
Search teams race against time
Local police swiftly launched a rescue mission and requested assistance from the Xiangxi Shuguang Rescue Team as well as cave-diving specialists from Baise, a city in the Guangxi autonomous region. Despite two deep dives by Baise's special police cave team, initial efforts yielded no signs of Wang.
During one dive, rescuers thought they heard a faint knocking sound from within the cave. Surface teams were ordered to cut their engine noise to listen more closely, but the sound did not reoccur. Divers eventually descended to a depth of 130 metres without success.
A desperate signal leads to breakthrough
On their ascent, at around the 100-metre mark, rescuers finally caught sight of Wang. Tian Yanglin, captain of the Xiangxi Shuguang Rescue Team, told the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, as cited by SCMP, that Wang had initially seen the divers swim past him from above but was unable to make contact. As his oxygen level dropped to just four per cent, he made a final effort by jumping into the water from a pocket of trapped air and waving a charged flashlight.
'That moment was his last chance,' Tian said.
Survival in extreme conditions
Wang survived in a hollow air-filled section of the cave. Trapped and disoriented, he lost all sense of time and endured by eating raw fish. Miraculously, he was in good physical condition when rescued and managed to walk unaided to the ambulance.
His first words to rescuers, after days of unimaginable isolation and stress, were simply: 'Do you have a cigarette?'
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