A search operation for seven villagers trapped inside a flooded cave in central Laos entered its seventh day yesterday, as rescuers encountered difficult terrain and weather as they tried to reach the group whose condition remains unknown.
The villagers entered the cave in Xaisomboun Province on May 19, but heavy rain triggered flash flooding that blocked the exit, according to Lao and Thai rescue teams involved in the operation.
Laotian organization Rescue Volunteer for People, which is working closely with the local authorities, said on social media that yesterday’s operation plan included exploring air shafts above the cave in hopes of identifying possible access points and locating the trapped people.
Photo: EPA, Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue
Rescuers from neighboring Thailand also arrived at the site over the weekend to assist the operation.
According to rescuers, divers have navigated about 100m into the flooded, narrow cave. They believe the villagers might be trapped about 30m beyond the furthest point currently accessible. They are working to pump water out of the cave to aid the search efforts.
The site is in a remote area in Xaisomboun Province’s Longcheng district, which is about 120km north of the capital, Vientiane.
Rescuers at the scene have detailed on social media the challenging mountainous terrain and heavy rain that is hampering the operation.
Videos shared online by Thai rescuers showed that reaching the cave’s entrance requires a steep hike on foot of about 4km. The entrance is also steep and rocky, and barely wide enough for a single person to climb through at a time.
Inside, rescuers must go through muddy passageways, flooded sections and narrow tunnels that force them to crawl forward.
There has been no official confirmation on why the villagers went into the cave, although the rescuers involved said that they went in to look for gold deposits.
Bounkham Luanglath of the Rescue Volunteer for People said that the cave was frequented by local residents looking for gold, although authorities had repeatedly warned them against entering the cave out of safety concerns.
The average per capita income in Laos of about US$2,000 to US4$,500 is among the lowest in Southeast Asia, and it is less still in underdeveloped rural areas.
Laos is not known as a major gold producer, but its mining industry is sizeable considering the country’s developing economy. The mining sector is fueled by foreign direct investment, largely from neighboring Thailand and China. Copper is a major export, and mining for rare earths, needed for most modern technologies, has become more common in Laos.
The Laotian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it had no official information to share with the media. The Southeast Asian nation is a one-party communist state with no organized opposition and the government keeps a tight lid on information.
The news quickly drew headlines in Thailand because of its resemblance to a dramatic 2018 cave rescue, where 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped for more than two weeks before being safely rescued in an operation that became a global sensation. A former Thai navy SEAL diver was killed during the search-and-rescue effort.
A new tragedy occurred earlier this month, when five Italian divers were found dead after they went missing while diving into a cave in the Maldives.
A Maldivian military diver who was part of the recovery team was killed during the high-risk operation to retrieve their bodies.
A major health risk of being trapped in a cave is cold conditions quickly leading to hypothermia.
The body can cope for weeks without food, but clean water is necessary to prevent dehydration. A contaminated water supply could cause diarrhea, hastening dehydration.
Declining oxygen levels cause symptoms similar to altitude sickness, and in the long term can damage the lungs and other organs, while carbon dioxide buildup causes exhaustion and eventual unconsciousness.
Constant darkness disrupts time perception and the body’s circadian rhythms. It also causes extreme sensitivity when the eyes have to adjust again to light.
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. Hundreds of people,
RSS