MORE than 70 cave and fell rescuers battled through the night to save a man who was trapped in a cave at Kettlewell for 15 hours after a boulder fell on him.

Alan Cross, 40, from Leeds, was in the Dowber Gill Passage, near Providence Pot, at around 6pm on Saturday when a piece of rock became dislodged from a wall and crushed him leaving him with a broken leg and internal bleeding.

Seventy three personnel from Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association and Clapham Cave Rescue plus an RAF helicopter turned out for the rescue operation and worked through the night to bring him out of the cave.

Harry Long, Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association controller, said: "It was a genuine accident. The pot does have a reputation as people often get lost in there. But it was nothing Mr Cross himself did wrong. A rock just fell down on him and he was lucky there were the two other people there to help pull it off him.

The fell rescuers were called out at 7.15pm. Its team of 60 with 13 Clapham Cave Rescue members had to travel around 300 metres to get to Mr Cross.

"He was in a lot of pain with a fracture to his lower femur and significant blood loss," said Mr Long. "He was quite well provided for and he had a survival bag which helped reduce heat loss."

A doctor was in the first party to go into the pothole and when they reached Mr Cross he was assessed and was given painkillers. His leg was then put in a splint and he was laid on a stretcher.

It took the rescuers 13 hours to get Mr Cross out of the cave. Mr Long explained: "In parts of the passage there was only room for one person to get to the front and rear of the stretcher. It was a long, slow journey and he had to be taken off the stretcher at a number of points where it was too narrow.

"He helped us by pushing with his arms and in the initial stages he was in no fit state to do that."

The rescue was made more difficult by the weather conditions and the team had to prevent water going into the entrance of the cave. Mr Cross was brought to the surface of the pothole at 10.55am on Sunday and flown to Airedale General Hospital.

Members of Bridge Church Scout Group, of Otley, who were camping at Hag Dyke Hostel 500 yards from Providence Pot have been praised for their help with the rescue. The scouts helped ferry equipment to the scene and were called to the mouth of the pot to help haul Mr Cross out. Older scouts stayed up all night making hot drinks.