/ 2 January 2007

Obese woman rescued from Cango Caves

An obese woman was freed ten hours after becoming trapped in a narrow passage in the Cango Caves, the Oudtshoorn metro said on Monday night.

”Normally guides tell people: ‘If you are too big or small you can’t go in.’ I don’t know why she went in there,” said an unnamed spokesperson.

The woman was ”fine”, she said. She was not taken to hospital.

Another 22 people were trapped with the woman in the tunnel more than a kilometre into the caves, reported South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news.

They included a diabetic man to whom medication had to be taken. A rescue team from George was understood to have cut away a part of the cave to free the woman after initial attempts to get her out failed. – Sapa