Rescue teams are battling heavy rain and equipment failures in their search for two remaining missing men in a flooded cave in central Laos. Earlier, five people were rescued after being trapped underground for over a week.
Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, one of the first international rescue workers on site, said heavy rains on Sunday raised water levels to the second chamber of the cave, preventing divers from reaching the area until pumps could lower the water level. A drainage pump also broke down, further complicating the situation, according to Japanese diver Yoshitaka Isaji.
Rescue teams from Laos and neighboring Thailand have coordinated over the past week to free the trapped individuals, joined by divers from Finland, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, France, and Australia.
Seven people entered the cave in a remote mountainous area of Xaysomboun province, central Laos, last week to search for gold and other precious minerals before being trapped by flash floods blocking the exit, according to local media reports. Another person managed to escape and alerted authorities.
A Lao rescue team said on Sunday they had received “significant” information about the cave system from the five men rescued earlier this week. “We hope today’s mission will locate the remaining two victims,” the team posted on social media.
The rescued individuals are receiving treatment at a local hospital and are making good progress, said Malaysian diver Lee Kian Lie, who is part of the operation. “We interviewed them about what the deeper part of the cave looks like. We will continue the search based on the information obtained, and perhaps we will reach the other two,” he said.
Rescue workers said they have advanced more than 200 meters (650 feet) into the cave and discovered five chambers within the system. The five people rescued so far were found in the fifth chamber.
Diver Paasi said the survivors reported a narrow crevice in the fifth chamber that might be a passage leading deeper into the cave system. “This is the only place we haven't checked in the mine, where the two missing miners might still be there,” he said in a video interview.
The five rescued men—identified by names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing, and Laen—were first spotted last Wednesday. The first was brought out safely on Friday, guided through a narrow flooded passage by a professional diver. The remaining four left the cave on Saturday after water levels receded enough for them to walk out on their own, according to rescue workers.
Videos posted online on Saturday show emotional moments as the men emerged one by one from the cave. Some collapsed at the cave entrance and were embraced by a group of workers, weeping with joy. Later footage shows them lying on stretchers, wrapped in aluminum blankets and wearing oxygen masks before being taken away.
