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The accident of a cave diver triggered a large-scale operation by the fire brigade, water rescue service, mountain rescue service, rescue service and police
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Ralph Goppel / dpa
The exploration of the Bavarian Mühlbachquellhöhle ended fatally for a diver on Saturday.
"There was an accident during a diving operation, and one person died," said a police spokeswoman.
Further details on the course of the accident in the cave in Dietfurt in the Neumarkt district in Upper Palatinate were initially not given.
Rescue workers had previously tried to bring the injured from the extensive cave system to the surface.
The fire brigade, water rescue service, mountain rescue service, rescue service and police were involved in the operation.
Divers probably complained of health problems
According to the police, one of the divers apparently got health problems in the cave.
Another member of the group then returned and alerted the rescue workers around 4 p.m.
The Mühlbachquellhöhle in the Franconian Alb is one of the longest and partly water-filled cave systems in Germany.
Local media reported that the diving group was at a depth of 700 meters.
In 2014, a rescue operation in the giant thing cave near Berchtesgaden made headlines nationwide.
The cave explorer Johann Westhauser was hit in the head by a rockfall in the deepest cave in Germany.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was brought back to light by more than 700 helpers from a depth of 1,000 meters in an eleven-day, almost one million euro rescue operation.
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