NEWS · C1 Level - Part 1

Scientists at Antarctic base rocked by alleged assault

A team of research scientists working in the Antarctic have reportedly made a desperate appeal for help after they say a colleague threatened to kill one of…

Level: C1 · 27 sentences

Transcript

  1. A team of research scientists working in the Antarctic have reportedly made a desperate appeal for help
  2. after they say a colleague threatened to kill one of them.
  3. The South African team are totally isolated at the remote research base thousands of miles from South Africa.
  4. Winter is fast approaching
  5. and that means it will be months before the team can be changed.
  6. Here's our climate correspondent Justin Rollett.
  7. The Sanae base is one of the most remote places on earth.
  8. Ten people were preparing to spend the Antarctic winter here.
  9. The base has plenty of amenities as this video tour taken four years ago shows.
  10. And here we have the games room, right, where all the fun happens.
  11. But extreme weather and 24 hour darkness
  12. meant the current team didn't expect to see another human being for six months or so.
  13. Then an email last week claimed there'd been a violent attack according to the South African newspapers.
  14. The email reportedly said one team member had threatened to kill another,
  15. creating, it said, an environment of fear and intimidation.
  16. The South African authorities have confirmed there was an assault.
  17. It was a dispute over a weather dependent task that required a schedule change, they said.
  18. It doesn't sound much but those who've spent time in Antarctica say overwintering on a base can be an incredibly intense experience.
  19. If you're there with just, you know, maybe ten other people as there were in Sanae,
  20. you get to know everything about the other person.
  21. You know exactly how they put their coffee cup down and what direction the handle points in.
  22. You know that they scratch their nose three times before they sit down.
  23. You know everything about them.
  24. And in the bad circumstances, it can start to irritate you.
  25. The South African environment ministry has said it is responding with utmost urgency
  26. but with temperatures falling and the weather worsening as the Antarctic winter draws in,
  27. getting a rescue team in will be very challenging.