Schoolgirl trapped in cave near Clapham (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Schoolgirl trapped in cave near Clapham

2:19pm Wednesday 8th September 2010 in Clapham news

Emergency services were called to Thistle Cave in Ribblehead yesterday after a 10-year-old girl became trapped.

A party from St Bernadette’s School in Newcastle had been crawling through a narrow passage when the girl got her knee trapped in a crack in the floor.

The Clapham-based Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO) was called at around 1.40pm, but by the time they arrived the girl had already been freed by members of her own party and was on the surface.

She was confirmed safe and well at 2.10pm.

Police and the ambulance service also attended the incident.

Tom Redfern, from the CRO, said: “This is the third incident in three years where a novice caver has got their knee trapped at that location in the cave.

“There is a crack in the floor of a small passage and when these cavers are crawling through their knee becomes jammed.

"It normally just takes a bit of gentle persuasion to free them from there.”