Five men are now free. Two are still underground, their fate unknown.

On Saturday afternoon, rescue divers in central Laos brought four villagers out of a flooded cave system where they had been trapped for 10 days, a day after a fifth man was extracted alive. Five survivors, pulled one by one through narrow, waterlogged tunnels — and two who ventured deeper into the mountain and never came back.

Eight men entered the cave in Xaysomboun province on 20 May, searching for gold. Flash floods surged through the passages and sealed the exit. One villager who had been near the entrance escaped and raised the alarm, leaving seven trapped inside.

For more than a week, an international team of cave divers battled to reach them — crawling through chambers as narrow as 50 centimetres, wading through passages choked with muddy water and sediment, contending with hydrogen sulfide gas from decomposing bat droppings that caused some crew members to faint.

Found Alive, Still Trapped

On Wednesday, divers finally broke through to a chamber roughly 300 metres from the cave mouth. Five men were huddled on a rocky ledge above the waterline, muddy, hungry, and alive.

Footage shared by rescue teams captured the moment headlamps illuminated the survivors. “There’s no need to cry,” one diver told them. “The important thing is that you’re alive.”

One of the men, who gave his name as Ing, spoke directly into the camera: “Don’t worry, Mom. The rescue team has reached us now. We’re safe. I miss Mom and Dad so much. We’ll probably get out tomorrow or the day after.”

But reaching them was only half the battle.

Getting Them Out

Rescuers initially planned to pump flood waters out of the cave complex. When that plan faltered, they discussed a last resort: teaching the trapped men to scuba dive and swim to safety — a desperate measure given the narrow confines and the men’s weakened state.

By Saturday, the pumping effort had succeeded well enough. Water levels receded low enough for divers to guide the four remaining survivors out on foot, according to the Lao rescue organisation Rescue Volunteer for People. The Thailand Rescue Diver Facebook page confirmed the extraction at approximately 3:10 pm local time.

Video from the scene showed the men emerging covered in mud, some collapsing on the ground, embraced by rescuers who wept openly. They were placed on stretchers, wrapped in foil blankets, and given medical attention in a makeshift tent.

The first man, identified only as Meud, had been brought out on Friday in an operation that took roughly 30 minutes. He offered a sobering assessment of the two still missing: they had gone about 500 metres deeper into the cave than the others.

“I’m afraid it’s too cold there,” Meud said, according to footage posted by the Lao Saychai Foundation.

A Cave Too Narrow

The cave system plunges downward at a 45-degree gradient, with tunnels narrowing to as little as 60 centimetres — roughly the width of a refrigerator. Rescuers had to tilt sideways, duck low, and crawl flat on their stomachs to advance. At points, only their heads and shoulders were above water.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, part of the team and a veteran of the 2018 Thai cave rescue, described the environment as “extremely remote and hostile.” Just reaching the cave entrance required a four-kilometre trek through dense jungle along muddy roads lashed by monsoon rain.

The international effort drew specialists from Thailand, Finland, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, France, and Australia — several of whom helped rescue 12 schoolboys and their coach from Thailand’s Tham Luang cave in 2018. Lessons from that operation were adapted here, including running LAN internet cables deep into the cave to coordinate the one-way route and relay first-aid guidance.

Two Men, Deeper In

The search now turns to an area 20 to 25 metres beyond where the survivors were found — a section that remains heavily flooded, according to Kengkaj Bongkawong, head of the Thai rescue group Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin.

Whether the missing pair survived the flash floods, the cold, and the darkness that deep in the mountain remains uncertain.

The five rescued men — identified by first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing, and Laen — will undergo health assessments after more than a week trapped underground, having survived on whatever limited resources they had carried in. Footage from earlier in the week showed them complaining of chest pains and hunger. One man told rescuers: “If we don’t get any food, we’re out of strength. If we’re still here after another two days, we’ll be dead.”

Outside the cave, families who kept vigil for 10 days embraced their loved ones. Days earlier, when rescue footage first revealed the men alive underground, a boy among the waiting families had spotted his father on screen and raised his hands in gratitude.

For two other families, the vigil continues.

Sources