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.''
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