15 French volunteers leave cave after 40 days without daylight or clocks

Deep Time project investigated how a lack of external contact would affect sense of time - and two thirds wanted to stay longer

Fifteen people have emerged from a cave in south-west France after 40 days underground in an experiment to see how the absence of clocks, daylight and external communications would affect their sense of time.

With big smiles on their pale faces, they left their voluntary isolation in the Lombrives cave to a round of applause and basked in the light while wearing special glasses to protect their eyes after so long in the dark.