Five Gold Prospectors Rescued From Flooded Cave in Laos After Six Days; Search Presses On for Two Missing Villagers
Five of the seven villagers who entered a cave in central Laos in search of gold have been rescued alive, nearly a week after they became trapped by rising floodwaters and landslides, according to officials involved in the operation. The search for the remaining two missing people is ongoing.
The group—all residents of a remote village in Xaisomboun province, about 75 miles north of the capital Vientiane—first entered the cave on May 20. Days of heavy rain triggered landslides that blocked the entrance, leaving the group stranded inside without food or clean water.
Bounkham Luanglath, a coordinator with the Rescue Volunteer for People organization, confirmed on Wednesday that five of the seven had been found alive. "I'm still shaking. Our team made it happen," he told the Associated Press in a voice message, adding that rescue efforts would continue for the other two.
Video footage posted to Facebook by the Rescue Volunteer for People showed rescuers cheering and embracing after the successful extraction. Another video, shared by Thailand's Saithan Saphanboon Foundation, captured the moment divers reached the five survivors, who were found sitting on a rock in a narrow chamber.
The rescue was complicated by the cave's extreme conditions. Divers had to navigate a tunnel more than 1,000 feet long, with sections so tight that at least one rescuer had to remove his equipment to squeeze through. The team included divers who had participated in the 2018 rescue of 12 Thai schoolboys and their soccer coach from the Tham Luang cave system—a mission widely regarded as one of the most perilous in modern rescue history.
According to Kengkad Bongkawong, a Thai diver who briefed CNN on Tuesday, the five survivors were administered physical assessments and given liquid and gel food before rescuers plotted a safe extraction route. The operation involved coordination between Lao authorities, Thai volunteer groups, and international divers.
The incident has drawn comparisons to the 2018 Thai cave rescue, underscoring the persistent dangers of flash flooding in Southeast Asia's limestone cave systems during monsoon season. Local officials have urged villagers to avoid entering caves for gold panning during the rainy season, though such warnings are often ignored in impoverished communities where gold hunting remains a crucial source of income.
The rescued villagers are expected to be transferred to a hospital in Vientiane for further evaluation. Authorities have not released their names or conditions.