Rescuers reassess safety in search for a woman they believe fell into a Pennsylvania sinkhole

UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — Rescuers contemplated the safest way Wednesday to search for a woman who apparently fell into a Pennsylvania sinkhole while looking for her lost cat, saying a crumbling old coal mine beneath the surface was complicating efforts and endangering workers.

Crews worked through the night in the Unity Township community of Marguerite to find Elizabeth Pollard, 64. A state police spokesperson said early Wednesday they were reassessing their tactics to avoid putting the rescuers in danger.

“The integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” Trooper Steve Limani told reporters at the scene about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh.

Sinkholes occur in the area because of subsidence from coal mining activity. Rescuers had been using water to break down and remove clay and dirt from the mine, which has been closed since the 1950s, but that was increasing the risk “for potential other mine subsidence to take place," Limani said.

“We're probably going to have to switch gears” and do a more complicated dig, he said.

On Tuesday, crews lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole, but it detected nothing. Another camera lowered into the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface, Limani said. Searchers also deployed drones and thermal imaging equipment to no avail.

Marguerite Fire Chief Scot Graham, the incident commander, said access to the immediate area surrounding the hole was being tightly controlled and monitored, with rescuers attached by harness.

“We cannot judge as to what’s going on underneath us. Again, you had a small hole on top but as soon as you stuck a camera down through to look, you had this big void,” Graham said. “And it was all different depths. The process is long, is tedious. We have to make sure that we are keeping safety in the forefront as well as the rescue effort.”

Pleasant Unity Fire Chief John Bacha, the operations officer at the scene, said they were “hoping that there’s a void that she could still be in.”

Pollard's family called police at about 1 a.m. Tuesday to say she had not been seen since going out Monday evening to search for Pepper, her cat. The temperature dropped well below freezing that night.

In an interview with CBS News, Pollard’s son, Axel Hayes, said he is experiencing a mix of emotions.

“I’m upset that she hasn’t been found yet, and I’m really just worried about whether she’s still down there, where she is down there, or she went somewhere and found somewhere safer,” Hayes said. “Right now, I just hope she’s alive and well, that she’s going to make it, that my niece still has a grandmother, that I still have a mother that I can talk to.”

Police said they found Pollard's car parked behind Monday's Union Restaurant in Marguerite, about 20 feet (6 meters) from the sinkhole.

Hunters and restaurant workers in the area said they had not noticed the manhole-size opening in the hours before Pollard disappeared, leading rescuers to speculate that the sinkhole was new.

“It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said.

Searchers accessed the mine late Tuesday afternoon and dug a separate entrance out of concern that the ground around the sinkhole opening was not stable.

“Let’s be honest, we need to get a little bit lucky, right?” Limani said Wednesday. “We need a little bit of luck on our side. We need a little bit of God’s good blessing on our side, right?”

Pollard lives in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were located, Limani said.

The young girl “nodded off in the car and woke up. Grandma never came back," Limani said. The child stayed in the car until two troopers rescued her.

It's not clear what happened to Pepper.

Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Kathy McCormack in New Hampshire and Sarah Brumfield in Maryland contributed to this report.

Rescue workers continue to search, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, for Elizabeth Pollard, who is believed to have disappeared in a sinkhole while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers continue to search, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, for Elizabeth Pollard, who is believed to have disappeared in a sinkhole while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers continue to search, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, for Elizabeth Pollard, who is believed to have disappeared in a sinkhole while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers clear their equipment in order to take a different approach to their search for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat in Marguerite, Pa., Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

This Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. image provided by the Pennsylvania State Police shows the top of a sinkhole in the village of Marguerite, Pa., where rescuers were searching for a woman who disappeared. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP)

Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Jewish settlers mounted a string of attacks on Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank overnight, burning homes and clashing with Israeli troops. There were no immediate reports of any Palestinian casualties.

The Israeli military said Jewish settlers attacked the village of Beit Furik after troops arrived in the area to dismantle an unauthorized farming outpost they had built nearby. It said the settlers hurled stones, wounding two members of the paramilitary Border Police, and one group entered the village and burned property.

The West Bank has seen a surge in settler violence since the start of the war.

In Lebanon, a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has held despite Israeli forces carrying out several new drone and artillery strikes on Tuesday, killing a shepherd in the country's south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed keep striking “with an iron fist” against perceived Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel last year in solidarity with Hamas militants who are fighting in the Gaza Strip. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

Israel’s blistering retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war in Gaza has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

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BERLIN — A Syrian photographer working for the German news agency dpa was killed by a fighter jet attack near the Syrian city of Hama, dpa reported on Wednesday.

The news agency couldn’t immediately give more details about when 32-year-old Anas Alkharboutli was killed. But the agency’s editor-in-chief, Sven Gösmann, said “all of us at dpa are in shock and infinitely saddened by the death of Anas Alkharboutli.”

“With his pictures he not only documented the horrors of war, he always worked for the truth,” Gösmann said. “In recent days in particular, his photos were seen around the world as he reported on the civil war that flared up again."

Alkharboutli joined dpa as a photographer in the Middle East in 2017. He mainly reported from the Syrian civil war zone.

Alkharboutli’s photography was recognized internationally. In 2020, he received the Young Reporter Trophy of the French Prix Bayeux for war reporting. At the 2021 Sony World Photography Awards, he won the Sports category with a series of images of children training in karate, the news agency said.

BEIT FURIK, West Bank — Jewish settlers mounted a string of attacks on Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank overnight, burning homes and clashing with Israeli troops.

There were no immediate reports of any Palestinian casualties.

The Israeli military said Jewish settlers attacked the village of Beit Furik after troops arrived in the area to dismantle an unauthorized farming outpost they had built nearby on land privately owned by Palestinians. It said the settlers hurled stones, wounding two members of the paramilitary Border Police.

Adel Hanni, a resident of the village, told the AP that a group of roughly 70 settlers gathered on the village lands early morning as the troops took down the outpost. The settlers burned Hanni’s son’s home, a car, a village shop and smashed the windows of several more homes. An Associated Press reporter saw a blackened home and a destroyed car on Wednesday morning.

"Some settlers started to break into the house, while others carried incendiary materials,” said Hanni, 57.

Settlers also attacked the village of Huwara, which has been the target of several previous attacks — even before the outbreak of the war in Gaza — and clashed with troops near Rujeib, another Palestinian village, the military said.

Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency said in a statement that they were investigating the settler attacks. They said they arrested eight Israelis for suspected property damage and assaulting security forces.

The West Bank has seen a surge in settler violence since the start of the war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel. Settlers have also raced to establish new farming outposts that rights groups say are among the biggest drivers of the violence.

The UN’s humanitarian office said settler attacks on Palestinian farmers during the recent olive harvest season “at least tripled” in 2024 compared to the last three years.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for an independent state.

The West Bank is home to some 3 million Palestinians who live under Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in cities and towns. Some 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship live in more than 100 settlements across the West Bank, many of which resemble suburbs or small towns.

Most of the international community considers the settlements to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed eight people, including four children.

The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies from one strike, said five were killed as they gathered outside of shelters in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

The hospital said another 15 people, mostly children, were wounded in the strike.

Also in central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah said it received the bodies of three people who were killed in what it says were two separate Israeli strikes early Wednesday.

The three dead include a man and a woman who were killed in a strike in Deir al-Balah, and another man killed in the urban refugee camp of Bureij, the hospital said.

The Israeli military said it struck a “terrorist target” in Nuseirat, without elaborating. It had no immediate comment on the other strikes.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,500 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Wednesday it had returned the bodies of two militants who crossed into Israel from Jordan in October and shot two soldiers.

The militants entered Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea on Oct. 18, shooting and wounding two soldiers before being shot dead by Israeli troops. Hamas praised the incursion but not claim responsibility for it.

The Israeli military did not release the names of the militants who carried out the attack.

Palestinians mourn over the body of victim of an overnight Israeli strike, during a funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A wounded Palestinian child is carried on a stretcher at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, following an Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, central Gaza, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian walks past a destroyed building following an overnight Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Shaked Malka, center, and her partner Yair Amar collect items from their home in Metula, Israel's northernmost town, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. Most residents of Israeli settlements and towns near the border with Lebanon have evacuated due to rocket attacks from Hezbollah in recent months.(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

CORRECTS NAME OF LEBANESE VILLAGE .- Backdropped by the southern Lebanese village of El Adeise, houses damaged by Hezbollah rockets attacks are seen in Metula, Israel's northernmost town, Wednesday Dec. 4, 2024. 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Parts of the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila are seen flattened by bombardments from Metula, Israel's northernmost town, on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Yemeni graduates of fighting courses organised by Houthi group, burn Israeli British and American flags in support of Gaza during a parade, in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

A Palestinian inspects the rubble of a destroyed building following an overnight Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry the body of victim of an overnight Israeli strike, outside a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian man carries a wounded child, following an Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, central Gaza, as they arrive at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A burnt house following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mohammed Hanani looks at his burnt car following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mohammed Hanani looks at his burnt car following a settler attack that damaged vehicles and houses in the village of Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A man carries a sack of donated flour distributed by UNRWA at the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A man grabs a sack of donated flour at a UNRWA distribution center in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli armoured vehicles move on in an area at the Israeli-Gaza border, seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)