IN BRIEF

  • The first trapped diver was pulled from the cave late on Friday night.
  • Seven men have been trapped in the cave since 20 May, with the location of two still unknown.

Four more men trapped in a semi-submerged cave in Laos for ten days have been freed, after one was successfully brought to the surface a day earlier.

“Four victim is out,” Lee Kian Lie, a Malaysian rescue diver, told AFP via Messenger.

“Water level is lowered by pumping, so they able to come out,” he said.

The first diver was rescued from the cave late Friday.

The Thailand Rescue Diver Facebook page said in a post that “rescue officials were able to bring out four more people trapped” at about 3.10 pm (0810 GMT) on Saturday.

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“A total of five people have now been rescued, while two remain missing,” it said.

Seven men had been trapped in the cavern in a remote mountainous area of central Xaysomboun province since 20 May, when flash floods stranded them as they searched for gold, state media reports said.

Five of the men were located alive on Wednesday, huddling in a narrow shaft around 300 metres from the cave mouth.

Footage filmed by rescue divers showed them muddy and despondent, complaining of chest pains and hunger pangs.

Before Friday’s rescue, Thai rescue teams were rehearsing extraction procedures outside the cave with stretchers, ropes and cables, according to images shared on social media.

Laos’s meteorology office forecast thunderstorms on Friday afternoon and evening, with rainfall expected across 60 per cent of Xaysomboun province.

Meanwhile, a new team of specialist divers touched down in Laos on Friday, including members from Thailand, France, Indonesia and Australia, according to Thai rescuers.

The emergency echoes the 2018 case of the Thai youth football team, which spent 18 days trapped in a cave in Thailand’s north before a daring international rescue saved their lives.

Two divers involved in that retrieval of 12 young footballers and their coach are working with Laotian volunteers after locals requested specialist personnel and equipment.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, part of the team that saved the ‘Wild Boars’ football team in Thailand, said on Wednesday that rescuers were “racing against time” inside the cave.

Rain the following day sent more soil and water into the cave, according to a Laotian logistics staffer for a firm supplying vehicles to support the rescue operation.

The man said on Thursday the rescue operation could stretch to “a few more days” if rains continued, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal from his employer.

Laos local media reported several rescue workers had shown signs of exhaustion after spending seven to 10 hours at a time inside the cave system carrying oxygen tanks, rescue equipment and supplies.

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