Police say they found a man living in an underground cave in Edmonton’s River Valley this month, days before it collapsed.
The Edmonton Police Service says officers were doing “resolutions” along the funicular when they came across a round piece of steel.
“They just happened to move it out of the way and discover a cave that had been dug in here, and found an occupant inside the cave,” Sgt. Serge Soucy with the high-risk encampment team said in an EPS video posted to X. “So he’d been living in here for a period of time.”
Police say the “vast” cave was five feet down and nearly 12 feet across.
“This is one of the most unique structures that we’ve encountered,” Soucy said. “Lots of work went into that.”
Edmonton police say after removing the occupant and sending him to the Government of Alberta’s “Navigation and Support,” officers returned to the cave days later to find “someone or something has caused it to cave in. Absolutely dangerous,” Soucy said.
EPS and EFRS crews were dispatched to make sure nobody was injured or buried after the collapse, police say. There were no injuries.
Now police are determining what to do next.
“That’s the concern is trying to clean this area out,” Soucy said. “How do you go in, how do you get stuff out of it, and the hazards you’re experiencing when you’re down in that hole.
“My recommendation would be to cave the whole thing in, so no one else makes an attempt to try to excavate it out further.”
