Five people were rescued alive at 4:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
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Rescuers have rescued five of the seven people trapped in a cave in Laos for a week after heavy rains and landslides triggered a landslide. The search for two more is ongoing.
The five were rescued alive at 4:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday. Officials said the villagers from various villages in Laos' Jaisombun province entered the cave last Wednesday to search for gold and tubers. However, they were unable to get out after flooding blocked the entrance to the cave.
Bunkham Luanglath of the Laos-based Rescue Volunteers for People told The Associated Press that the search for the two missing people is ongoing. He said about 100 rescuers have been deployed to search for the missing people. “I’m still shaking,” said one rescuer. “Our team made it possible.”
The cave, which extends so deep underground, is extremely narrow. Rescuers say there is only 2 inches of space in some places. Finnish expert diver Mikko Pasi, who lives in Thailand, is also involved in the mission.
He described the rescue mission as extremely difficult early on Wednesday. “Rescuers have to navigate hundreds of meters of continuous obstacles, floodwaters, the risk of collapse and high levels of contaminated air inside the cave,” he said. “This is an abandoned gold mine.”
He estimated that the seven men were trapped about 300 meters (984 feet) from the exit. The villagers entered the cave, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital Vientiane, on Wednesday, state media reported.
“This area does not belong to anyone,” Lao rescuer Bang told AFP news agency. “Locals usually go there to dig holes and look for food (wild food).”
Some of the rescuers who were involved in the 2018 mission that successfully rescued 12 young players and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province are also active in the current mission. Among them, Thai rescuer Kengkach Bangkawong is one.
The extraordinary rescue operation involved more than 10,000 specialists from around the world and attracted huge global attention. Several films and documentaries have been made based on the incident, including the feature film “Thirteen Lives” and the documentary “The Rescue.”
