Rescuers free one of seven trapped in Laos cave

More specialist divers en route to help with extremely challenging recovery operation

A rescue team on Friday night freed one of seven men trapped inside a semi-submerged cave in central Laos for more than a week, the group working at the site said.

“The first victim has been successfully rescued out of the cave,” the Thai group Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue said in a Facebook post accompanied by a picture of three men guiding another bedraggled and muddy man over unsteady ground.

The seven men had been trapped in the cavern in a remote mountainous area of central Xaysomboun province since May 20, when flash floods stranded them as they searched for gold.

Five of the men were located alive on Wednesday, huddling in a narrow shaft around 300 metres from the cave mouth.

Video filmed by rescue divers showed them muddy and despondent, complaining of chest pains and hunger pangs, while the remaining two of their group remain unaccounted for.

“One person has got out of the cave safely,” Thai rescue team member Kengkard Bonggawong said in a separate Facebook post on Friday. “We will assess the other four and we will hunt for the other two tomorrow.”

Another team of ⁠specialist divers was headed ​to Laos on Friday to help with the complex retrieval effort.

Among the ‌new reinforcements were Robin Cuesta from France, Audita Harsono from Indonesia, Yoshitaka Isaji of Japan, Naruchit Kiatmaneesri from Thailand and Josh Richards of Australia, ⁠the volunteer group posted on Facebook.

Mr Kengkard said in a Facebook post earlier on Friday that the health of the survivors was deteriorating as they awaited evacuation.

“The ​rescue operation is extremely challenging, as it involves moving them through narrow passages stretching hundreds of metres ​and ‌requiring underwater diving,” he said. (Story continues below)

An image from a video taken on May 27 and provided by Norrased Palasing of Seascout Diving, shows people who have been trapped in a flooded cave in Xaysomboun province, northeast of the Lao capital Vientiane. (Photo via AFP)

Video taken on Thursday by Norrased Palasing, another Thai volunteer, showed survivors ​sitting ⁠on a ledge deep in the cave and crying with relief.

Norrased’s team found five ⁠of the seven trapped people. In the footage, he told them that rescuers would bring food into the cave while efforts were being made to ⁠pump out the floodwater.

One of the survivors, identifying ​himself as Lin, said, “Don’t worry about me, mum. The rescuers are here. I’m safe now. I miss you mum. I miss you mum and ‌dad. In ⁠a few days I’ll ​be out.”

Earlier in the day Thai rescue teams were rehearsing extraction procedures outside the cave with stretchers, ropes and cables, according to images shared on social media.

Laos’s meteorology office forecast thunderstorms on Friday afternoon and evening, with rainfall expected across 60% of Xaysomboun province.

The emergency echoes the 2018 case of the Wild Boars youth football team, which spent 18 days trapped in a cave in northern before a daring international rescue saved their lives — an operation followed by millions around the world.

Two divers involved in that retrieval of 12 young footballers and their coach are working with Laotian volunteers after local people requested specialist personnel and equipment.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, part of the team that saved the Wild Boars in Chiang Rai, said on Wednesday that rescuers were “racing against time” inside the cave.

Rain the following day sent more soil and water into the cave, according to a logistics staffer for a firm supplying vehicles to support the rescue operation.

The man said on Thursday the rescue operation could stretch to “a few more days” if rains continued.

Laos local media reported several rescue workers had shown signs of exhaustion after spending seven to 10 hours at a time inside the cave system carrying oxygen tanks, rescue equipment and supplies.