American caver trapped in Turkey's third deepest cave close to being rescued

An American caver who had become trapped more than 1,000 meters underground in southern Turkey has been moved closer to the surface and is expected to be rescued by Tuesday morning, rescuers said.

Mark Dickey, 40, was on an international exploration expedition in the Morca cave in Taurus mountains when he reportedly began suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding at a depth of 1,040 meters.

"I cannot say the exact time (he will exit the cave) but I guess this night or tomorrow morning, if everything goes on the way," said the Medical Coordinator for the Cave Rescue Commission, Tulga Sener.

Previous footage from the operation showed Dickey lying inside the cave and receiving treatment by a medical team. Footage also showed other teams moving down the caves with ropes and making their way through narrow passages.

"Mark's general health is very good but he cannot be fed through the mouth therefore he is being fed intravenously all the way through," Sener added.

"Mark is actually currently (...) about two hundred meters below the entrance. It is a very particular phase of the cave here because there are so many slopes it is a bit tricky," Giuseppe Conti, European Cave Rescue Association technical commission chairperson, told reporters.

"This is another kind of difficulty so this will last for a few hours for sure," Conti said.

More than 150 rescuers from Turkey and other countries have been working for days to rescue him from the country's third deepest cave located in the Taseli plateau in Mersin province.

"Mark reached the last 180 meters in 4:26 PM local time (3.26 PM GMT). Now he will rest here for a while," the Speleological Federation of Turkey wrote on Twitter (X), adding:

"The rescue operation will continue from the -180 meters after Mark has rested at the camp here for a while. If everything goes well, it is aimed to rescue Mark completely by tonight or tomorrow."