Five of the seven villagers trapped for a week in a flooded cave in Laos have been found alive, rescuers said on Wednesday.
They were located by specialist cave divers and for now remain stuck in an underground cavern in the central Laotian province of Xaisomboun, as rescuers continue to search for the two remaining people.
“5 people have been found safe. The search continues for the remaining 2,” Thai rescue diver Kengkad Bongkawong wrote on Facebook at 4.30 p.m. local time.
A Laotian rescue group, Rescue Volunteer for People, said that the five found were “alive and all safe.”
Bongkawong told CNN on Tuesday that once the trapped people are found, they will be given a physical assessment and provided with liquid and gel food. A plan will then be formed as to how to extract them.
Extraction will likely prove challenging. To reach those trapped, rescuers are understood to have had to navigate a 340-meter (1,115 feet) tunnel, according to the Metta Tham Kalasin (MTK) Command and Control Center, one of the groups coordinating the rescue.
Some areas of the pitch-black and partially flooded tunnel appear very narrow, with a width of roughly 23 inches. One of the rescuers said he was at one point forced to remove his equipment, in order to squeeze through and reach the next area of the cave.
Video footage taken using a GoPro shows the rescuers reaching five of the seven trapped, telling them “don’t cry, don’t cry!”
The villagers went into the cave last Wednesday in search of gold, but heavy rain triggered flash flooding which blocked the exit, the Associated Press reported, citing Laos and Thai rescue teams.
The dangerous operation to rescue them was launched amid deteriorating conditions. They are believed to be trapped on “an elevated ledge inside the cave that benefits from continuous airflow,” state-run Lao News Agency reported Tuesday.
Rescuers earlier told CNN that more than 100 people had joined the operation – including 15 experienced divers and experts who helped in the dramatic 2018 cave rescue of a young soccer team in Thailand .
This is a developing story and will be updated.
