A 31-year-old man was rescued after being trapped for approximately 26 hours in a cave on the Italian island of Sardinia following a rockslide that blocked the entrance. Luca Olmetto became trapped about 10 meters below the surface in the Gorropeddu cave, situated in the Urzulei mountain range in eastern Sardinia, on Sunday afternoon.

Olmetto had been exploring the cave alongside his girlfriend, who was a few meters behind him and narrowly avoided the collapse. She escaped without injury and promptly alerted authorities. Rescue teams immediately launched an operation to reach Olmetto, tackling a challenging environment compounded by loose rubble and earth.

After extensive efforts to manually clear the debris blocking a narrow passage, rescuers reached Olmetto late on Monday afternoon. He was conscious and responsive throughout the ordeal. Following careful removal of the surrounding debris, Olmetto was extracted from the cave shortly after 6 p.m. local time. Medical personnel stabilized him before he was airlifted to a hospital for further treatment.

The complex rescue involved around 48 members of Sardinia’s alpine and speleological rescue corps, supported by 30 firefighters. A helicopter facilitated the delivery of necessary equipment and materials to secure the site.

The town council of Orodolgianos, Olmetto’s hometown in northwestern Sardinia, conveyed the community’s relief after a day marked by intense concern. The Gorropeddu cave, where the incident occurred, is known to be a largely unexplored natural cavity.

This rescue follows a comparable incident in December 2024, when 32-year-old explorer Ottavia Piana was trapped for 75 hours at a depth of roughly 600 meters in the Buenofonteno caves near Bergamo in northern Italy. That operation, involving 160 specialists, resulted in Piana being freed but sustaining multiple fractures to her vertebrae, ribs, and face.