Rescue divers find at least 5 people trapped in cave in Laos
Five of the seven villagers trapped in a flooded cave in Laos were found alive by rescuers on Wednesday. The incident mirrored the dramatic rescue of a teenage soccer player in Thailand in 2018.
The pair were found by professional cave divers and remain trapped in an underground cave in Saisombun, central Laos, as rescue teams continue to search for the remaining two.
“Five people have been found safely. The search for the remaining two continues,” Thai rescue diver Khengkad Bonkawon wrote on Facebook at 4:30 p.m. local time.
Lao rescue group Rescue Volunteer for People said the five people found were “alive and all safe.”
Mikko Persi, a Finnish diver participating in the rescue operation, expressed his joy at finding the five trapped people. “It hasn’t been easy, but everyone involved has done an amazing job,” he wrote on Instagram.
But he added that it was “only a fleeting sense of relief” as the survivors are still trapped in the cave for now. “They are all healthy and doing well, but the removal is still a long way off and it won’t be easy,” he said.
He said the next mission for him and another diver is to “dive straight down” to deliver more supplies to the villagers and recover their strength in preparation for departure.
A video shot by Paasi shows villagers being asked their names and whether they have the disease. They replied that they were not sick, but felt weak and very hungry.
Watch as rescuers discover villagers trapped in a flooded cave.
Watch as rescuers discover villagers trapped in a flooded cave.
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Bongkawon told CNN on Tuesday that once the trapped people are found, they will be searched and given liquid and gel food. Then a plan is made on how to extract them.
Extraction will likely be difficult. Rescue workers are believed to have had to traverse a 340-meter (1,115-foot) tunnel to reach the trapped people, according to the Metta Tam Karasin (MTK) Command and Control Center, one of the groups coordinating the rescue.
Some areas of the dark and partially flooded tunnel appear very narrow, approximately 23 inches wide. One of the rescuers said he was forced to remove his equipment at one point in order to slip through the cave and reach the next area.
Video footage shot using a GoPro shows rescue workers approaching five of the seven trapped people and telling them: “Don’t cry, don’t cry.”
GoPro footage shows efforts to rescue villagers trapped in a flooded cave in Laos.
GoPro footage shows efforts to rescue villagers trapped in a flooded cave in Laos.
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Bongkawon said the villagers, all believed to be men, entered the cave last Wednesday in search of gold, but heavy rains caused flash floods that blocked the exit.
A dangerous operation to rescue them was launched amidst worsening conditions. They are believed to be trapped “on a high ledge within the cave, where they benefit from continuous air flow,” the state-run Lao News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Rescuers earlier told CNN that more than 100 people took part in the operation, including 15 experienced divers and experts who helped with the dramatic cave rescue of Thailand’s young soccer team in 2018.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
