The incident resulted in diplomatic tension between Britain and Mexico, as the soldiers refused local help and there were rumors that they were surveying for uranium deposits.
"[1] While six of the men were in the Alpazat caverns on an expedition expected to take 36 hours,[4] a flash flood blocked their exit, causing them to shelter in a pre-fabricated emergency camp in a drier part of the cave.
[3] The trapped men were later named as Chris Mitchell, Jonathan Sims, Charles Milton, Simon Cornhill, John Roe, and Toby Hamnett.
[6] Sims recounted the anxiety of their first night underground of hearing the "booming, crashing sounds" as the flash flood filled parts of the cave with water.
[7] The incident caused "anti-British sentiment" in Mexico due to lack of notification of the presence of British military in the country.
[2] Then-President Vicente Fox sent a letter of protest to London about the affair, saying, "We are asking the British government to tell us whether these people are military personnel, and if they are, what they are doing there."