Five people trapped in a flooded cave in Laos for a week were found alive on Wednesday, rescue workers in Laos and Thailand said.
“We have found 5 people alive and all are safe. There are still 2 people we are searching for,” Rescue Volunteers for People said on social media.
Rescue Volunteers for People posted a video on Facebook showing rescue workers celebrating the news.
“I’m still trembling. Our team made it possible,” Bonkham Luanglath, who worked with a Lao rescue group, told the Associated Press news agency via a voice note.
In a separate video posted on Facebook, Thai rescuer Kengkach Bangkawong said, “At 4:30 p.m., we found our target. We found five people. We are searching for the other two.”
Kengkach later shared another video in which he and other rescue workers were hugging and cheering inside the cave.
What do we know about the people trapped in the cave in Laos?
A group of people from local villages were reportedly searching for gold when the entrance to the cave was blocked after a landslide caused by heavy rains and floods on May 19.
Bounkham told AFP earlier this week that one of the people in the group managed to escape the cave before the exit was blocked and authorities were alerted.
The cave is located in a remote, mountainous area of Xasombun province, about 125 kilometers (78 mi) north-east of the capital Vientiane. About 100 people are engaged in the rescue operation.
Rescue workers working at the scene said on social media that operations were being hampered due to heavy rain and rough terrain.
Mikko Pasi, an expert diver from Finland, said earlier on Wednesday that rescuers would have to cover “hundreds of metres”.
Finland’s expert rescue diver Mikko Pasi said earlier on Wednesday that rescuers would have to cover hundreds of meters (yards) amid “constant restrictions, flood waters, collapse threats and high risk of contaminated air quality” inside the cave, which he called an “abandoned gold mine.”
The rescue effort included Thai experts who aided the dramatic recovery of a youth soccer team from a flooded cave in 2018.
Edited by: Zack Crellin
Don’t let algorithms hide news. If you rely on our team for reliable reporting, please take a moment Select us as your favorite source on Google by clicking here and pressing the “Star” or “Favorite” buttonThat’s why you’ll always see our verified news first.