Heavy rain to delay search for two missing in Laos cave
Heavy rain threatens to delay the search for two people still missing in a flooded cave after the rescue of five people trapped underground in Laos for more than a week.
Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, one of the first international rescuers to reach the site, told The Associated Press that rains filled the cave to the second chamber, preventing divers from entering the cave until pumps lowered the water level.
Seven villagers reportedly entered the cave last week in search of valuable minerals and were subsequently trapped by a flash flood that blocked their exit. Another villager escaped and reported the situation to the authorities.
Rescue teams from Laos and neighboring Thailand were working together last week in a rugged area in central Xaisomboun province, about 120 kilometers north of the capital Vientiane.
They were joined by divers from countries such as Finland, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, France and Australian Josh Richards.
Many of the rescue teams had previously been involved in the complex 2018 cave rescue operation that rescued 12 schoolchildren and their football coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand.
Malaysian diver Lee Kian Lie, who participated in the operation, told the AP on Sunday that the rescued men were being treated at a local hospital and were in good condition.
“We talked to them about what the deep part of the cave looks like. We will continue to search based on the information we have, maybe we can manage to reach the other two,” he said.
Rescuers said they went more than 200 meters deep into the cave and discovered five chambers in the system. The five people rescued so far were found in the fifth room.
Survivors told the fifth chamber there was a narrow crack that may have been a passage leading to a deeper part of the cave system, Paasi told the AP.
“This was the only place in the mine that we did not check where the two missing miners could still be found,” he said during a video interview.
“There’s a theory now that it continues through this little crack, and there’s a sixth room, which gives us hope right now; if we can get past that little restriction, we can get to the sixth room and see what’s in there.”
