Five Men Rescued from Flooded Laos Cave; Two Still Missing

Overview

• Rescue teams from Laos and Thailand, supported by international cave divers, have extracted five of the seven men trapped in a Xaisomboun province cave, with the latest evacuations completed on Saturday.
• Divers reached the group on Wednesday and found five men alive in a dry chamber above the flooded passages before delivering food, blankets and basic medical care.
• Rescuers taught the trapped men simple breathing and movement techniques so they could help guide themselves through claustrophobic, low‑visibility submerged tunnels during evacuations.
• The site is remote and hard to reach, requiring about a 4 km uphill trek to the entrance, and even experienced cave divers spend roughly two hours navigating the narrow, murky tunnels, which has limited pump and extraction work.
• Two people remain missing and teams are continuing to pump water from the cave and search the system while monitoring weather and landslide risks that could affect further rescue efforts.