Five people who were trapped for a week inside a flooded cave in Laos have been found alive, rescuers said on Wednesday.
Seven local villagers became trapped on 20 May after entering an abandoned gold mine in central Laos’s Xaysomboun province. Search efforts to locate the other two are still ongoing.
Earlier, an international rescue team said that they were “racing against time” to save seven people trapped when the mine complex flooded due to sudden, heavy rains. Eight people had gone inside the cave, but one had escaped.
“We’ve found 5 people alive and all safe. There are still 2 people we are searching for,” Rescue Volunteer for People said on social media.
“I’m still shaking. Our team made it happen,” Bounkham Luanglath, who works with the Laos rescue group, told the Associated Press.
According to The Laotian Times, the five were hungry and exhausted but in stable condition.
Earlier, the international search teams were considering a last-ditch effort to explore the cave’s last chamber as the mission entered its eighth day, they said on social media.
On Facebook, Thai rescuer Kengkach Bangkawong wrote on Wednesday: “At 4.30pm, we found our target. We found five people. We are looking for the other two.
A Finnish specialist, Mikko Paasi, who was also involved in the 2018 rescue of the footballers from Thailand’s Tham Luang cave, arrived to help with the Laos operation earlier this week after videos showed parts of the Xaysomboun cave completely flooded with muddy waters.
On Wednesday, after the five were found alive, Mr Paasi said that “this is only a brief relief as the 5 survivors are still in the terminal chamber, all healthy and in good spirits, but the extraction is still ahead and it ain’t going to be easy”.
Earlier, he wrote on social media that “we are racing against time” and that “the way in is full of challenges”.
He said that the team was considering a final search dive into the cave’s last chamber if safety conditions allowed. He earlier warned that the rescue effort was becoming increasingly urgent as the seventh day passed and access to the cave remained extremely difficult.
On his Instagram, Mr Paasi said: “The environment is extremely remote and hostile, that starts with a 4km jungle track to the site and when inside the mine, you have to navigate hundreds of metres of constant restrictions, flood waters, collapse hazards and high risk of contaminated air quality.”
He added: “Yesterday was spent elevating safety standards by building road access, installing air flow and water pumps and even Wi-Fi cable to the terminal chamber where the diving starts.”
Authorities and local residents have been pumping water out of the cave, but rescue teams had so far been unable to reach the group. State-run Lao Economic Daily reported that water levels had dropped considerably by Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, rescue crews had inched closer to the trapped men after breaking through 15 metres of obstacles in a day.
The cave is deep and difficult to access, with narrow passages and steep rocky sections. Despite official warnings, locals continued entering the cave in search of gold, according to Mr Luanglath of the Laos Rescue Volunteer for People. He told the Associated Press on Monday that the site had long attracted frequent visitors hoping to find precious metals.
Eight villagers had initially entered the abandoned gold mine, and one person from the group had escaped after noticing floodwaters rising quickly due to heavy rain, but the other seven became trapped inside. Their predicament was only reported publicly nearly three days later.
Earlier, Mr Paasi said the missing seven “should be trapped in the terminal chamber” around 300 metres from the exit.
“We are still in high spirits that we will find the miners alive as they entered the mine with resources to stay sub-terrain for several days,” he added on Tuesday.
In an interview with CBS News, he had admitted that even if the trapped miners were still alive, rescuers may not be able to bring them out if they are too weak or unconscious. He said that attempting to drag them through the cave would be extremely dangerous.
On Wednesday, Mr Paasi said that the rescuers “need to dive straight back and bring the miners more supplies to gain strength and get ready for the way out”.
Caves across the landlocked Southeast Asian country are a major draw for adventure tourists, but local activists also say that many rural residents venture into them searching for gold and other valuable minerals.
According to local reports, villagers from the region gathered near the entrance of the cave on Wednesday morning before the rescue operation resumed to hold a traditional spiritual ceremony. They reportedly offered chickens and rice alcohol to spirits believed to protect the mountain and those involved in the rescue effort.