The party spent nearly four hours in Dow Cave, near Kettlewell, in Upper Wharfedale, after the narrow passageway they entered by became a torrent of water.

Two of the four college staff who went into the "beginners" cave with 11 students managed to wade and swim to safety, before running more than two miles to Kettlewell Village Store, to raise the alarm because they could not get a signal on their mobile phones.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, police and ambulances arrived at the scene, and called for assistance from the volunteers of the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Team.

By 7pm the 13 people still in the cave had been floated out on rubber rafts and taken to the Blue Bell pub in Kettlewell to be checked over.

College principal Alan Blackwell said: "I was notified immediately by my staff and was reassured that they had taken the students to an area of the cave which never floods and offered a safe haven.

"They kept the students in this safe area until the rescue services arrived."

The college specialises in outdoor pursuits courses and the caving expedition was coursework for the students, aged from 17 to their early 20s.

Dow Cave leads to the notorious Dowbergill Passage, but the main cave is regarded as an easy and safe exploration, suitable for beginners, rescue controller Tony Dean said at the local volunteers HQ in Grassington.

He said the high passage leading to the cave's main exit narrowed at the bottom to a footpath only two or three feet wide and that had flooded.

Across Yorkshire emergency services will remain on high alert this weekend amid predictions of more heavy downpours.

A severe weather warning is in place for the region late tomorrow and Monday, with as much as four inches of rain expected over high ground and nearly an inch to three inches elsewhere.

Firefighters in East Yorkshire, still pumping water from Burstwick Drain into the River Humber, say they are ready to deploy heavy-duty pumps to areas where they are most needed.

Mark Tinnion, regional flood risk manager for the Environment Agency, said: "We are now planning for any problems that might occur on Monday as the result of the forecast of heavy rain.

"We will be continuing to monitor the situation very closely over the weekend."