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1h ago

Five Found Alive in Laos Cave as Rescue Team Seeks Two Missing

Specialist divers located survivors deep in a flooded terminal chamber and rescuers are preparing a technically difficult extraction under hazardous conditions.

Rescue workers inside a cave in Xaisomboun province, where five of seven people who were trapped in a flooded cave for a week in Laos were found alive on May 27, Laotian and Thai rescuers said. Picture: Handout / Metta Tham Rescue Kalasin / AFP
Members of a rescue team work to save seven people trapped in a cave, at a location given as Xaisomboun Province, Laos, in this handout image released May 25, 2026. Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue/Handout via REUTERS
Members of a rescue team work to save seven people trapped in a cave, at a location given as Xaisomboun Province, Laos, in this handout image released May 25, 2026. Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue/Handout via REUTERS
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Overview

  • The villagers, who went into the cave to prospect for gold, were cut off by flash floods that sealed the entrance after heavy rain on May 20.
  • Rescue divers reached and confirmed five of the seven people alive in a terminal chamber roughly 300–340 metres from the entrance but the two others remain unlocated.
  • Teams face extreme obstacles including a partly submerged 340 metre approach, sections as narrow as about 60 centimetres, unstable sediment and poor or contaminated air that make extraction risky.
  • More than 100 responders, including specialist cave divers who took part in the 2018 Tham Luang rescue, have been pumping water, running air lines, clearing obstructions and staging supply dives to prepare an exit plan.
  • If the extraction succeeds the survivors will need immediate medical checks and reintegration support for families in the remote Xaisomboun area while operations continue to search for the two missing people.