THE body of a woman who died in a cave at a Purbeck beauty spot at the weekend remains unrecovered.

Emergency workers were at the scene, near Swanage, yesterday to see if conditions would improve enough to allow the grim recovery operation to take place.

But the body of the 30-year-old Londoner has yet to be recovered.

The identity of the woman, who spent an hour speaking to her rescue party while she was trapped in the cave, is yet to be released. Next of kin have been informed.

She became trapped during rising seas at Tilly Whim caves on Saturday after taking part in a sport known as coasteering with her brother.

Her 31-year-old sibling – who was unhurt – raised the alarm.

As lifeboat crews battled 50mph gusts outside the mouth of the cave, the woman was able to speak through a narrow blowhole to rescue workers perched tantalisingly close on cliffs above.

One brave Coastguard cliff rescue team member eventually risked his own life by squeezing through the opening and dropping into the flooded cave below. However, by this point the woman had died.

John Bugler, one of the Coastguard cliff team involved in the rescue attempt, later Tweeted: “Very hard to leave it, just could not do more.”

The mood among those involved in the operation was described as “sombre” by Becky Mack of Swanage RNLI lifeboat yesterday.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said that officers had worked with the Swanage coastguard rescue team and the Swanage RNLI inshore lifeboat and accessed the location yesterday but they could not locate the missing swimmer and enquiries are continuing.

The spokesman added: "Officers are in close contact with the family."