5 villagers stuck in a flooded cave for more than a week found alive in Laos, rescuers say

Five villagers stuck inside a flooded cave for more than a week have been found alive, officials said, sparking jubilant scenes around the site in Laos.

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Two people are still missing from the group that entered the cave on May 19 in the central Xaisomboun province, north of the capital Vientiane, before heavy rain and flash flooding blocked the entrance.

On Wednesday, one of the groups coordinating the search, Metta Tham Kalasin (MTK) Command and Control Center, posted a video that appeared to show the moment rescuers made the discovery. The footage, seen through the screen of a small body camera-type device, showed people wearing head torches huddled on a rock to stay out of the muddy water below.

Another video showed a group of people above ground, some of them wearing MTK t-shirts, exchanging hugs and punching the air, some of them falling to their knees and wiping away tears on hearing the news.

Bounkham Luanglath of the Lao organization Rescue Volunteer for People, which has been working closely with local authorities in the rescue efforts, told The Associated Press that five people were found safe and alive but two more were still missing, and the search will continue for them.

“I’m still shaking. Our team made it happen,” he said in a voice message to the news agency.

The cave is a narrow chamber often visited by villagers searching for gold deposits, Bounkham had previously told the AP. He said that authorities had repeatedly warned people against entering the cave out of safety concerns.

State-run Lao National Radio reported that Thai rescuers arrived at the site on Sunday for assistance. Divers have since begun navigating flooded sections of the cave toward the area where they believe the group may be trapped.

Those helping out include divers who took part in the dramatic 2018 rescue of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach who were trapped for weeks in a Thai cave.