Rescue teams are working to save a man trapped inside Germany's deepest cave after he was wounded by falling rocks.
The German man, whose name has not been released, is currently trapped an estimated 3,280 feet underground inside the cave located in the Bavarian Alps, The Telegraph reported.
Authorities said it will take rescue workers a few days to free him from the Riesending Cave- said to be one of Europe's most difficult, the Associated Press reported.
"The cave is very, very difficult," Stefan Schneider, deputy chairman of Bavarian Mountain Rescue, told local newspapers, according to The Telegraph. Going down will be "an extreme physical and mental challenge."
The 52-year-old cave researcher was traveling with two other people on Sunday when the rock slide occurred, injuring him in the head and upper body and trapping him underground. One of the travelers stayed with him while the other made the brutal, 12-hour climb back to the entrance to call for help, the AP reported.
Dozens of cave rescue specialists from Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland arrived at the scene near the border with Austria. The experts risk being injured by falling rocks as they descend the dark cave, maneuvering through a series of tight bottlenecks and vertical shafts, The Telegraph reported.
"We have shafts that go straight down 1,150 feet, where you have to rappel down and climb back up on a rope," rescue official Klemens Reindl told a local TV station, the AP reported.
A doctor who was able reach the wounded man said he is at risk of hypothermia and that he is too weak to be moved, The Telegraph reported. This poses a dilemma for rescue workers because doctors say the man needs to be kept flat on his back.
The wounded man is reportedly a member of the team that first discovered the Riesending Cave in 1995. He returned over the weekend to further explore the cave.
