More than a week after seven local villagers became trapped in a flooded cave system in central Laos’ Xaysomboun province, international rescue teams have ramped up operations to locate the final two missing men, with critical intel from survivors now guiding new search plans.
The seven villagers entered the narrow mountain cave tunnels on May 20 to hunt for gold, but an unexpected flash flood cut off their exit route, leaving them stranded deep underground. As of Sunday, five of the seven men have been pulled out to safety: the first survivor was rescued by official teams on Friday, while four more managed to escape on their own on Saturday after water levels inside the cave dropped enough to open a temporary path.
Rescuers told AFP on Sunday that several of the recently freed survivors are already contributing to the search from their hospital beds, sharing detailed descriptions of the cave’s deeper, uncharted sections to help teams navigate the complex system. The cave extends deep under the mountain, with some passageways measuring only 50 centimeters wide, so the first-hand information from survivors is being described as “substantial” and has already been integrated into a newly revised search strategy, according to a local Laotian rescue organization. A fresh push to locate the remaining two trapped men was scheduled to launch Sunday.
An unverified video shared on social media captured the moment the four Saturday escapees emerged from the cave mouth, drawing loud cheers from waiting rescuers and onlookers. While the exact cause of the water level drop remained unclear, Japanese rescue diver Yoshitaka Isaji told the Associated Press that teams have been working to drain flood water out of the cave system. However, the drainage pump that was in use over the weekend broke down, leaving the primary rescue passage used on Saturday currently impassable. Crews are working nonstop to repair the broken pump, after an earlier attempt to pump out flood water earlier in the week also ended in failure.
The cross-border rescue effort has drawn specialized cave diving teams from multiple countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, France and Australia, all of whom have joined local crews to support the search for the two remaining missing villagers.