Laos, stuck in a cave for a week: 5 of the 7 missing found alive

“Five people have been found safe and sound. The search continues for the other two,” Thai diver Kengkad Bongkawong wrote on Facebook. The Laotian group ‘Rescue Volunteer for People’ also confirmed that the five survivors are alive and in stable condition.

Before the discovery, rescuers had spoken of a “race against time” to reach the group, trapped in the cave for a week. “We are racing against time, as today is the seventh day and the route is full of dangers,” declared Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, already involved in the Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018.

Paasi, who is also participating in the current mission, then expressed relief at the discovery of the five men: “So far the task has been anything but easy and everyone has done an extraordinary job.” However, he specified that it was only “a brief moment of relief”, because the survivors still had to be evacuated. “They are all healthy and in good spirits, but the extraction will be very complicated,” he explained.

According to what rescuers reported, the five men appear very weak and hungry, but have no serious illnesses or injuries. The divers will now return to the cavity to deliver new food supplies and help them regain strength for the exit.

The seven men, all male, they had entered the cave on May 20 in search of gold in what Paasi called an “abandoned gold mine,” but heavy rains caused a sudden flood which blocked the way out. Local authorities and villagers worked for days to pump water out of the cave.

Rescue operations are proving particularly difficult. To reach the missing, rescuers had to cross a tunnel approximately 340 meters long, partly flooded and completely dark.. Some passages are said to be just 60 centimeters wide, so much so that one of the divers was forced to remove part of the equipment to be able to continue.

The cave system, located in a remote area about 125 kilometers from the capital Vientiane, extends deep underground with several levels and narrow tunnels. “You have to travel hundreds of meters between continuous obstacles, floods, dangers of collapse and a high risk of air pollution,” Paasi explained before the discovery.

Over 100 people are participating in the operation, including 15 experienced divers and specialists who took part in the famous rescue in Thailand in 2018.