The Hindu : International : Survives five weeks in cave

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005

International

International

Survives five weeks in cave

Paris: A man has been found alive after spending five weeks trapped in a labyrinth of underground caves in south-west France. Jean-Luc Josuat-Verges, 48, told his rescuers that he had survived for 35 days in the pitch darkness by eating rotten wood and clay. He was found only by a ``miraculous'' stroke of luck when teenagers taking advantage of a one-day teachers' strike decided to explore the caves. Josuat-Verges left his home on December 18 suffering from depression and telling his wife he wanted to spend some time alone. Carrying a bottle of whisky, he drove to a network of galleries and grottos at Madiran in the Hautes-Pyrenees once used as a mushroom farm. He became lost in the dark and was unable to find his way out. His wife Ginou, a teacher, believing he had gone for a short walk, hired a helicopter to fly over the local woods in search of him. He was rescued on Friday when the teenagers spotted his car and alerted the police, who sent 20 officers into the caves to find him. They found him 200 metres from the entrance. Looking thin — he lost 18 kg — tired and distracted, Mr Josuat-Verges said he survived by licking drops of water from mineral deposits on the walls of the cave. The rotten wood and clay he ate is thought to have come from bowls left by mushroom pickers.

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