Ankara, Sep 10 (IANS): Efforts are underway to rescue a New York cave researcher who has been trapped under 3,000 ft underground, the media reported.

Mark Dickey, an experienced caver and chief of the New Jersey Initial Response Team, who usually rescues others, fell ill after which an international team of more than 170 rescuers has set up a medical relay system in Turkey's third-deepest cave to aid him, the New York Post reported.

As per Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate, AFAD, Dickey, of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, was down with gastrointestinal bleeding on while on a mapping expedition in the Morca cave.

"The moment we get the go-ahead from the medical team, we will start the evacuation,' said Recep Salci, who heads the search and rescue department at AFAD.

Cenk Yildiz, a regional official from the agency said, "This is a difficult operation...It would take a (healthy) person 16 hours to come out," ABC News reported.

He was given IV fluids and at least four litres of blood and has since stopped vomiting and even managed to eat food, a New Jersey-based cave rescue group he is affiliated with said.