Source : the age
Vientiane, Laos: Five of the seven men trapped for more than a week in a flooded and extremely narrow cave system in Laos have been brought out alive.
The first breakthrough came late Friday (Vientiane time) with video showing a man sodden and weak, but still able to walk with assistance, being helped out of the cave mouth.
It took about 37 minutes to bring the man through the passages to safety, the rescue team said in a Facebook post. Rescuers announced on Saturday afternoon that a further four villagers had also been brought out of the flooded cave.
Lao and Thai rescue groups posted about the successful operation on social media, along with photos of the men lying on stretchers, wearing oxygen masks and being wrapped in foil blankets.
The villagers had reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals before being trapped by flash flooding that blocked their way out. One other villager escaped in time and alerted the authorities to the seven left behind.
Two more men, named Bay and Lup, were still missing.
Evacuations of the four villagers eventually rescued on Saturday had been suspended the night before because they were not ready, said Chakkit Taengtang from Sai Than Association, one of the Thai rescue organisations at the scene.
The successful extraction comes after additional expert divers were brought in from overseas, including Australia’s Josh Richards.
The extra divers were flown into the remote site by helicopter, avoiding the diabolical mountain roads.
The five survivors were discovered by divers on Wednesday afternoon to cheers of jubilation from their families waiting at nearby Phanchai Village.
But getting them out of the labyrinth was another matter.
Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, a central figure in the search and rescue effort, is also a veteran of the 2018 Thai cave rescue that saved 12 boys and their football coach.
Paasi told this masthead that saving the Lao men’s lives was even more complex than in Thailand because of the extreme and unrelenting claustrophobia.
“If it rains, you’re going to drown there,” he said a day before the successful extraction.
The men – seven fossickers from three small villages in Xaisomboun province – had been sealed inside the cave since rain flooded the chambers and cut passageways on May 20 and 21.
In a video shot Friday, just about an hour before the evacuation of the first man began, Thai rescuer Kengkaj Bongkawong of the Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin detailed the challenge they were facing in the operation.
The team had set up a station in a large chamber inside the cave, accessible only by navigating more than 200 metres of twisting, narrow, flooded passages with jagged walls. From there, divers need to dive through a flooded tunnel about 30 metres before reaching the trapped men.
“To dive in a cave, there are issues with the temperature, narrow areas, control of movement, and managing the panic of the survivor, which will be difficult, but we have to do it,” Kengkaj said.
With AP, Reuters
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