Rescued cavers pass health check

The rescued cavers were taken to a Swiss hospital

DELEMONT, Switzerland -- Eight Swiss tourists who were trapped in a flooded French cave for three days have been declared fit and healthy after medical check-ups.

The seven and their guide said they sang and played games to keep their spirits up during the ordeal.

But there has been criticism of organisers of the expedition near the French-Swiss border, with one local newspaper declaring: "Happy ending to an idiotic escapade."

The group of potholers were taken to a hospital in the Swiss town of Delemont after being rescued late on Saturday.

One of the men, who was not named because the hospital refused to release identities, said: "The most difficult moment for me was when I realized I was a prisoner.

"It was tough because we couldn't sleep -- half an hour, one hour at the most," he said. "But we did activities together -- aerobics, and some games. We sang together."

The Associated Press said hospital director Peter Anker had said that medical check-ups had shown the group to be in good physical health and that they would all be free to go to their homes in the Zurich area.

"It was thanks to the solidarity of the group that they found the resources and strength to survive and continue," Dominique Baettig, a hospital psychiatrist, told AP.

The eight were freed on Saturday to cheers and sighs of relief from around 250 rescuers who worked day and night since last Wednesday.

Rescuers had used dynamite to unblock the flood waters that had hampered the battle to free them from the cave near the city of Goumois.

The five men and three women had walked out of the mouth of the cave covered in mud, accompanied by the potholing experts who went in to fetch them.

The novice Swiss potholers were caught off-guard by a sudden rainstorm and a surge in floodwaters on Wednesday evening and forced to take refuge on a rock ledge about 100 metres (yards) from the mouth of the cave, where they spent the next 72 hours.

After 30 hours of working in shifts to find them, divers came close to quitting before they discovered the trapped group on Friday morning standing on a ridge a few feet above water level.

Divers swam through the water channel which had trapped them in the cave to bring food, drinking water, blankets and heating equipment.

But the final rescue was held off while teams on the surface worked to drain the waters.

Late on Saturday afternoon, the rescuers from France and Switzerland speeded up the drainage by using dynamite to blow away part of the rock holding the waters inside.

The rescue mission involved 118 potholing specialists, more than 70 emergency services staff, close to 50 policemen and more than a dozen power utility and other experts, plus a helicopter and dozens of pumps and other equipment.

The potholers went on the underground exploit for an exam project designed to test their "personal limits."

The region, like many others in France, has been hit by above-average rainfall this year, making potholing even riskier than usual.

In November 1999, an equally big rescue operation was mounted to hoist seven experienced potholers out of a flooded cave in southwestern France where they survived on tinned sardines and chestnuts.

The cave known as Bief-du-Paraud, or Paraud Canal, it is considered ideal for inexperienced potholers.