Four more men freed from flooded Laos cave in hazardous rescue mission | Laos
Four more miners trapped in a flooded cave in Laos for 10 days have been freed by divers, but two remain missing as rescue teams continue to comb through narrow, flooded tunnels and sharp rocks to find them.
The first of the group of seven was rescued on Friday in a dangerous rescue mission that required teams to drain the cave of water and bypass the dangers of collapse.
The four men pulled out on Saturday were found crouched and huddled together on a rocky ledge inside a chamber about 300 meters (980 ft) from the cave entrance on Wednesday, but rescuers were unable to immediately evacuate them.
The search for the remaining two missing persons continues; International dive teams, including those who worked on the dramatic rescue of a young Thai football team, are crawling and wriggling through narrow passages and muddy waters with poor visibility to find them.
The men are thought to have entered the cave last week to search for valuable minerals such as gold ore, then became trapped by flash flooding carried in by sand and gravel caused by heavy rain, which blocked a key exit.
Rescuers provided the group of five they found on Wednesday with water, soft food and foil blankets to keep them warm while they remained in the cave.
The first person rescued was caught on camera walking unsteadily and covered in mud from the cave on Friday. As rescuers cheered and helped him away from the cave entrance, he screamed in pain and one rescuer could be heard warning others to be careful because his hands were injured.
“The first one is out. Safe and sound!!!” Manat Artmongkron, a rescue technician for the Saithan Saphanboon Foundation, a Thai rescue group, wrote in an enthusiastic Facebook post.
On Saturday, a second man was seen slowly climbing out of the narrow entrance of the cave. He stood shivering and smiled as his rescuers wrapped him in the foil blanket.
Lao and Thai rescue groups posted photos on social media of men lying on stretchers, wearing oxygen masks and wrapped in foil blankets following the successful rescue operation.
Thai rescuer Kengkaj Bongkawong of Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin said rescuers faced “problems with temperature, tight spaces, movement control and managing survivor panic” during the dive.
He said teams were required to dive through a 25 metre-long narrow tunnel: “Diving in the narrow passage that has no space to make a U-turn, this is really dangerous so we need to evaluate the safety measures, principles, routes and expertise in the cave area.”
Australian cave diver Josh Richards, who joined the team on Friday, said rescuers were trying to pump out as much water as possible due to the cave’s “particularly unstable” clay and mud walls. He said that this affects the consistency and visibility of the water and said: “You are actually diving into the coffee. You will not see anything through it.”
Bongkawong said his team plans to explore an area deeper into the cave, about 20 to 25 meters beyond where the survivors were found. But he warned that the section was heavily flooded.
