Six tourists confirmed killed in Tenerife cave accident

dpa German Press Agency Published: Sunday February 11, 2007

Canary Islands- Canary Islands officials confirmed Sunday that six tourists were killed after becoming lost in the depths of a cave on the Canary Island of Tenerife. The six were among a 30-strong party of day-trippers that went missing in the cave near Los Silos in the north of the island.

The 24 remaining tourists were brought to safety in a dramatic rescue operation carried out Sunday morning by Spanish police and fire services.

It was thought that the six had died from lack of oxygen, the authorities said.

Rescue teams wearing oxygen masks had recovered four bodies, authorities said, and were in the process of trying to recover the other two.

The trip to the cave had been organized by a research institute in the Canaries and a group of nature lovers.

The tourists were predominately young Spaniards between the ages of 20 and 30, but there were also a number of foreign scientists with them whose nationalities were not immediately known.

It was believed that the group had taken a wrong turn during their underground excursion and entered a tunnel which had been dug during the 19th century in an effort to find water but which had contained poisonous gases and little oxygen.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency