Five of the seven people trapped in a flooded cave for a week in Laos were found alive on Wednesday afternoon, Lao and Thai rescuers said.
“We’ve found 5 people alive and all safe. There are still 2 people we are searching for,” the Lao rescue group Rescue Volunteers for People said in a social media post.
“At 4.30pm, we found our target. We found five people. We are looking for the other two,” Thai rescuer Kengkard Bongkawong said in a Facebook post.
One of the specialist divers involved in the challenging operation said earlier that the teams were “racing against time”.
“If all the possible safety matters can be met today, we are considering a final search dive into the last chamber to locate the lost 7,” Finnish diver Mikko Paasi said in a social media post.
The Thailand-based diver took part in the dramatic 2018 retrieval of the Wild Boars youth football team from the flooded Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, a story that captured worldwide attention for days.
The seven villagers entered the cave in central Xaysomboun province, about 125 kilometres northeast of the Lao capital Vientiane, on May 20, state media said.
They were searching for gold but instead got trapped inside the cave — what Mr Paasi called an “abandoned gold mine” — after heavy rain triggered flash flooding, blocking their exit.
By Wednesday morning, the water level in the cave had fallen considerably with rescuers continuing to pump it out, the state-run Lao Economic Daily said.
Rescuers, local officials and residents gathered outside the cave on Wednesday morning before work resumed to perform a traditional spiritual ceremony, offering chickens and rice alcohol to sacred spirits believed to protect the mountain and rescuers.
The cave system, located in a remote area, extends deep underground, with multiple levels and narrow passages.
Inside the cave, Mr Paasi said “you have to navigate hundreds of metres of constant restrictions, flood waters, collapse hazards and high risk of contaminated air quality”.
