THREE Scots teenagers were rescued yesterday from a labyrinth of

underground tunnels after their search for adventure went dramatically

wrong.

They emerged after 17 hours, exhausted and dirty but physically

virtually unscathed, from disused lime workings having been found by

mine rescue volunteers who had combed the dark passages running under

the Fife countryside.

The youths, Graham McBride, 15, Wayne Allan, 17, and Ronnie Thomson,

19, all from Kennoway, later praised their rescuers and told how after

getting lost and breaking their only torch they had wandered the maze of

tunnels stopping occasionally to sleep.

One of those who had been involved in the rescue operation said: ''You

could lose an army in there and it would take another army to find

them.''

It later emerged they were found in an area that had been searched

several times indicating the extent of their travels in the underground

honeycomb.

Last night Fife police and the Mine Rescue Service indicated they

would be taking measures to minimise the dangers that can occur from

open entrances to disused workings.

Assistant Chief Constable Andrew Mathieson said both organisations

would be raising the issue of sealing the entrances with the landowners.

One of the mine rescue workers said they were surprised the entrances

had not been closed before. ''We would not, in the mining industry, be

allowed to leave something like that open.''

He said the youths were very lucky and could have been lost for a very

long time. The teenagers were fortunate because the temperature

underground was reasonable and no gases were involved in the system.

The teenagers had gone out around 9.30pm on Thursday to the remote

Cults Hill limework quarry, which has not been worked for a number of

years.

The trio went down into a gully and entered through an entrance above

which someone had painted the words ''The Black Hole''.

Army cadet Wayne later told how one of them had been carrying a torch

but this had been broken in a fall. ''It was dark and pretty cold in

there and I was pretty scared.''

Two friends who had also gone to the area but did not enter the mine,

which is known to have had roof-falls and been affected by water in the

past, became worried and raised the alarm.

Mine rescuers from Crossgates and Longannet in Fife went to the area

and teams of two immediately began a search leaving messages at

different points in the grid system of tunnels indicating to the youths

help was at hand.

After 17 hours one of the teams came across the exhausted youths and

brought them to safety from an entrance 600 yards away from the orginal

point of entry.

Relatives who had waited anxiously for news hugged them as they were

brought out.

Mr John Allan, Wayne's father, said they had gone to the disused mine

''just for adventure''.

''It's brilliant they're out and I have the utmost respect for their

rescuers.''