Survivors advise rescuers in search for last two stuck in Laos cave

VIENTIANE – From their shared hospital room, several survivors who were freed from a semi-submerged cave in Laos after more than a week underground are advising rescuers on how to find the last two missing men believed to be trapped even deeper inside.

Rescuers, including foreign cave divers, said on May 31 that they were devising a risky search for the two men and gaining insights about the narrow, flooded passageways from the survivors – one of whom spoke of “waiting to die” in the depths of the cave.

A Laotian rescue group said the information on the cave system from the hospitalised men was “considered substantial” and “being used to prepare the search plan for the remaining two people”.

“The hope is that today’s mission will locate both remaining victims,” the group wrote on May 31 on social media.

Five men were found alive on May 27, huddling in a tight shaft around 300m from the mouth of the cave in a remote mountainous area of central Xaysomboun province.

They were among seven stranded in the cave by flash floods nearly two weeks ago as they searched for gold, state media reports said.

Rescue divers extracted the first man on May 29, and four more found their own way out on May 30, after teams delivered them food and medicine and had for days pumped water from the cave, providing them with an easier exit.

Their emergence prompted emotional scenes as tearful relatives and rescuers ran to embrace them just before they were helped to tents for medical checks, videos from rescue groups showed.

Zero visibility

In their shared hospital room, the five survivors rested on simple metal cots with thin mattresses, lined side by side, footage aired on state television showed.

They were receiving medical treatment and “in good condition”, Malaysian diver Lee Kian Lie said on May 31.

Rescuers had interviewed the men about how the deeper part of the cave looked, he said in a message to AFP.

“We will continue to search based on the information we have, and perhaps we (will be) able to get to the other two,” said Lee, who joined the rescue operation on May 29.

The four who left the cave on May 30, he added, had “walked out themselves because the water (level had) been lowered”.

One of the four, a man identified by Laotian state media as Laen, confirmed they had managed to escape through areas “where water was already pumped out”.

But before the rescue divers found them, despair was setting in, he said in an interview with Lao National Radio from the hospital on May 31.

“We spent three days searching for a way out, but we couldn’t find it. And it was hopeless,” Laen said.

“I said if there is no diving team coming to help, there would be zero per cent chance of survival. We were just waiting to die.”

The man rescued on May 29 – identified only as Meud – said in a video shared by a rescue group that the two missing men had entered the cave several days before the others and had descended much farther.

The search for the last two men on May 31 was focused on a tight, inundated passage believed to lie beyond the area where the five survivors were found, according to Japanese diver Yoshitaka Isaji.

“This submerged passageway is extremely narrow and practically unpassable unless you change your posture. Imagine the space as narrow as a dresser drawer,” Isaji wrote on social media, adding that the muddy water meant “visibility is zero”.

Rescuers were still pumping water from the cave and trying to block more from flowing in, he added.

“Given the enormous risk, diving would only be a last resort.” AFP