BANGKOK: A search operation for seven villagers trapped inside a flooded cave in central Laos entered its seventh day on Tuesday (May 26), as rescuers encountered difficult terrain and weather as they tried to reach the group whose condition remains unknown.
The villagers entered the cave in Xaisomboun province on May 19, but heavy rain triggered flash flooding that blocked the exit, according to Lao and Thai rescue teams involved in the operation.
The Lao organisation Rescue Volunteer for People, which is working closely with the local authorities, posted on its Facebook page that Tuesday’s operation plan includes exploring air shafts above the cave in hopes of identifying possible access points. and locating the trapped people.
Rescuers from neighbouring Thailand also arrived at the site over the weekend to assist the operation.
Experts from Thailand who aided the dramatic 2018 retrieval of a youth football team from a Thai cave joined rescue efforts on Monday to extract the seven people, Laotian state media said.
CHALLENGING CONDITIONS HAMPER RESCUE EFFORTS
According to rescuers, divers have navigated about 100m into the flooded, narrow cave. They believe the villagers may be trapped about 30m beyond the furthest point currently accessible. They are working to pump water out of the cave to aid the search efforts.
The site is in a remote area of Xaisomboun province’s Longcheng district, which is about 120km north of the capital, Vientiane. Rescuers at the scene have detailed on social media the challenging mountainous terrain and heavy rain that are hampering the operation.
Videos shared online by Thai rescuers showed that reaching the cave’s entrance requires a steep hike on foot of roughly 4km. The entrance is also steep and rocky, and barely wide enough for a single person to climb through at a time.
Inside, rescuers must go through muddy passageways, flooded sections and narrow tunnels that forced them to crawl forward.
