An outing of fifth-grade students, educated in a college in Saint-Ismier (Isère), turned tragic on Thursday in a cave. A professional speleologist, who supervised the group of college students, was indeed found dead by the emergency services after a rise in water. Grenoble prosecutor Eric Vaillant confirmed this Friday that the victim died trying to save one of the college students, as revealed The Liberated Dauphine.
The prefecture announced Thursday evening that the other participants all came out safe and sound from the Cuves de Sassenage, a cave located near Grenoble. A total of two other adults were stranded underground, namely a second professional speleologist and a teacher, who were rescued in time. All the students who took part in the visit had been able to go back to the surface as a priority, when the group noticed the rising waters, late Thursday morning.
The evacuation operation had to wait until the early evening
An evacuation operation was launched “as soon as a favorable weather window presented itself”, after 7:30 p.m., the prefecture said in a press release. “During their progress, the rescuers 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 therefore found safe and sound, and brought to the surface.
The Grenoble public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident, which was entrusted to the gendarmes of the PGHM of Isère. The intervention mobilized the Group of reconnaissance and intervention in perilous environments (Grimp), the firefighters and the cave rescue of Isère, the CRS Alpes, the Samu, the Platoon of high mountain gendarmerie (PGHM) as well as the Isère gendarmerie group.