After a teen jumped off a waterfall in a Tennessee state park, it took rescuers hours to save him, according to officials.
On the morning of June 2, authorities were contacted about someone at the bottom of the Cane Creek Falls in Fall Creek Falls State Park, according to a news release from the Piney Volunteer Fire Department.
According to a release from the Dunlap Fire Department, the teen had dove from an 85-foot waterfall into the swimming hole below.
The hike down to the bottom of the waterfall is “very steep and difficult,” according to the Piney Volunteer Department.
Bystanders helped the department carry the teen from the bottom of the falls across the creek and then up the Cable Trail until they reached the vertical climb up the falls. Rescue personnel used rope rescue techniques — including a rigged high line and a basket — to get the teen to safely, the department wrote.
According to the volunteer fire department, they set up a high line and pulled the teen up in a basket for the rest of the climb, according to the Piney department.
The unidentified 17-year-old suffered severe but non-life-threatening injuries, fire officials said.
Rescuers loaded him into an ambulance with Van Buren County EMS around 1:15 p.m.