Rescuers work to drain flooded Laos cave to free 5 villagers and search for 2 still missing

BANGKOK (AP) — Rescuers working at a flooded cave in Laos said Friday that they were trying to drain water out to help extricate five villagers who have been trapped for more than a week.

An overnight rainstorm has complicated their efforts, they said. Meanwhile, searching continues for two more people who still haven't been located. The villagers had reportedly entered the cave to look for valuable minerals.

Rescue experts from Laos and neighboring Thailand have been working together for the past week, making their way through twisting, narrow passages with jagged walls and flooded sections of the cave located in a rugged area in the central province of Xaisomboun, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Vientiane.

Those helping out included several divers who took part in the complicated 2018 rescue in northern Thailand of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach who were trapped for more than two weeks in a cave.

The Lao organization Rescue Volunteer for People says that another diver from Malaysia is assisting in the operation. Kengkaj Bongkawong, head of Thai rescue group Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin, said that divers from Indonesia, Japan and France were also on their way.

The discovery on Wednesday of five trapped villagers triggered celebrations among the rescue teams. They said the search for the other missing two will continue.

A video filmed by Thai cave diver Norrased Palasing showed the emotional moment he and Finnish diving instructor Miiko Paasi emerged from the water and discovered the trapped men. In the footage, the men are wearing headlamps and sitting on a rock surrounded by floodwater.

The five men were identified by their first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing, and Laen, according to the Lao rescue group. They were reportedly in good health but exhausted from dehydration and lack of food. Divers have since delivered soft food and water to them.

The men could be heard wailing as they saw their rescuers, and Norrased inquired about their health and conditions.

Along with introducing themselves on camera, they delivered messages to their families telling them not to worry.

“Don’t worry mom, dad. I’m still strong, I’m still healthy. Tomorrow I will be home. I love you mom and dad,” said the man, who introduced himself as Mued.

Lao officials say the villagers normally forage in the mountainous, heavily wooded surroundings for a living.

The villagers had been reported to have entered the cave to look for gold deposits. Bounphong Khammanyvong, a local official in Longcheng, the district where the cave is located, said that they had noticed rocks or sand with unusual colors in the cave, so they entered it in the hope of digging them out to see if they were valuable.

Bounphong, in an interview on Thursday with local media outlet Xaisomboun Province Television, said the villagers were trapped when heavy rain caused flooding that blocked them from leaving. An eighth person who managed to escape alerted the authorities.

He said that the group went in on May 20, contradicting rescuers who put the date at May 19.

Rescue Volunteer for People posted on its Facebook page that Friday’s operation plan included pumping water out of the cave in an attempt to get the five villagers out later in the day, but that heavy early morning rain had complicated their efforts.

“The front of the cave is in a low-lying area. When it rains, all water will flow down to this area and into the cave,” Bounphong said in his interview.