Rescuers have described the “emotional” and “overwhelming” moment when they discovered five villagers alive inside a flooded gold mine in Laos.
Seven villagers have been trapped for more than a week after entering the remote cave in Xaysomboun province in search of gold, only to see torrential rains flood the mine complex.
On Wednesday five people were found alive in a chamber over 300 metres from the cave’s entrance. Two are still missing.
Finnish cave diver Mikko Paasi, who is part of the rescue mission, described the moment he found the villagers alive as “overwhelming”.
In an interview with ABC News, he said: “That was an emotional moment [when we found them], like what are the chances? We believed they were still alive, but the odds were quite low given everything.”
He added: “Ascending to the final chamber where they were and seeing them sitting there all grey and all pale but in good spirits.
“They were very happy, there were tears, big smiles from both sides,” he said.
“The feeling of not giving up, and succeeding … now we are one step closer to getting them back out to their families and kids. It was overwhelming.”
Despite the sense of celebration at just finding the villagers alive, rescuers are now keenly aware of the challenge they face in bringing the five out of the cave.
On Thursday, Kengkard Bongkawong, who also participated in the dramatic 2018 mission to save young Thai footballers from a flooded cave, said the next step was to “escort all five people out of the cave”, which was not going to be an easy task.
He said rescuers still had to contend with an extremely narrow passage running several hundred metres, including a 27-metre section that was fully submerged.
“The main dangers are running out of air and getting stuck, so we need a watertight safety and rescue backup plan ready to go instantly,” he wrote on Facebook.
“We need to borrow as many oxygen tanks as possible and want to set up an oxygen refilling station in front of the cave.”
Excavation teams have, in recent days, been trying to carve out an access route for the trapped villagers to come out. “The route they used to enter has chambers along the way where people can stop and rest. The victims know that when water rises, they have to retreat to those safer points,” Mr Bongkawong told CNN on Thursday.
He said that one of the newest obstacles facing rescuers was hydrogen sulfide, a toxic, foul-smelling gas produced by decomposing bat droppings inside the cave, which has already caused some crew members to faint.
Mr Bongkawong said the rescue route has limited air supply, meaning the team will need oxygen tanks throughout the operation, along with specially modified cave stretchers in case the trapped villagers are too weak to make the journey out on their own.
Mr Paasi also said that the rescue operation was especially difficult because the cave passages were extremely narrow, muddy and partially flooded, forcing divers to squeeze through tight underwater gaps while carrying equipment in near-zero visibility.
He said rescuers needed to be “slim”, mentally tough and ideally “under 60 to 70kgs” because larger divers could struggle to fit through some sections, where even breathing space was limited.
The rescue effort was set to receive more support on Friday, with Josh Richards, an Australian diver, as well as experts from Japan, France, Indonesia and Thailand arriving, raising the number of specialist cave divers at the site to seven.
Mr Paasi said on Thursday: “If claustrophobia had a form, this would be it.” He said to enter the cave, one had to “wriggle through like a worm” to get to the flooded chamber.
“It’s a constant, super tight restriction.
“I had to go through places where I had to exhale to wiggle my body through.
“Moving inside the tunnels – hundreds of metres of tunnels – is done by fingertips or toe-tips.
“The diving is the same … you take a tank in your hand and you reverse into a hole that you can barely fit your chest in.
“It’s a really dangerous way of diving. If something happens, you are so deep in the ground, behind such long, tight tunnels, that you’re pretty much on your own.”
On Wednesday, one of the surviving men inside the cave, who gave his name as Ing to the rescuers, said: “Don’t worry, Mom. The rescue team has reached us now. We’re safe. I miss Mom and Dad so much. We’ll probably get out tomorrow or the day after.”
“The important thing is that you’re alive. It’s okay, it’s okay, you’ve done really well. Don’t cry,” Norased Palasing told the men.
Locals have long been aware of the hazards involved in entering the abandoned mine, but official warnings have failed to deter people from seeking their fortune there. Bounkham Luanglath, a member of the Lao rescue team, said the site had long attracted visitors hoping to find precious metals.
Eight villagers had initially entered the abandoned gold mine, but one person from the group escaped after noticing floodwaters rising quickly due to heavy rain, while the other seven became trapped inside. Their predicament was only reported publicly nearly three days later.