BANGKOK — Rescue workers in Laos said Saturday they have safely evacuated four men trapped in a flooded cave for 10 days, the day after another was successfully extracted. Two men remain missing.
Laotian 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 wrapped in foil blankets.
The men had reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals before being trapped by flash flooding that blocked their way out. One person escaped in time and alerted the authorities to the seven left behind.
Laotian organization Rescue Volunteer for People said on its Facebook page that the water level in the cave had receded low enough for the trapped men to leave with divers who had gone in to deliver food and water. They said they will continue their search for the two who remain missing.
A video posted online by a Thai rescuer at the scene, Chakkit Taengtang, showed the men being assisted one by one out of the cave’s entrance, bodies covered in mud. After they got out, some collapsed on the ground and were hugged by a group of rescuers, who cried in joy.
The first of the trapped men was safely evacuated Friday. According to rescuers, that operation took about 30 minutes. Videos showed the moment he emerged from the water alongside a diver, catching his breath before struggling to crawl through a narrow, flooded passage and rising unsteadily to his feet.
Five others were found alive Wednesday. They were identified by their first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing and Laen.
Rescue teams from Laos and neighboring Thailand were joined by Japanese and Malaysian colleagues. Indonesian, French and Australian specialists also reportedly arrived at the site in a rugged area in the central province of Xaisomboun, about 75 miles north of the provincial capital, Vientiane.
Several of them had taken part in the complicated 2018 cave rescue in northern Thailand of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach.
Rescuers are also preparing to search for the two men who remain missing.
Kengkaj Bongkawong, head of the Thai rescue group Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin, said Friday that the team plans to explore an area deeper inside the cave, about 20 to 25 yards beyond where the survivors were found. However, he cautioned that the section is heavily flooded.
Saksornchai writes for the Associated Press.
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