VIENTIANE: From their shared hospital room, several survivors freed from a semi-submerged cave in Laos after more than a week underground are advising rescuers on how to find the last two missing men believed to be trapped even deeper inside.
Rescuers, including foreign cave divers, said on Sunday (May 31) they were devising a risky search for the two men and gaining insights about the narrow, flooded passageways from the survivors – one of whom spoke of “waiting to die” in the depths of the cave.
A Laotian rescue group said the information on the cave system from the hospitalised men was “considered substantial” and “being used to prepare the search plan for the remaining two people”.
“The hope is that today’s mission will locate both remaining victims,” the group wrote on Sunday on social media.
Five men were found alive on Wednesday, huddling in a tight shaft around 300m from the mouth of the cave in a remote mountainous area of central Xaysomboun province.
They were among seven stranded in the cave by flash floods nearly two weeks ago as they searched for gold, state media reports said.
Rescue divers extracted the first man on Friday, and four more found their own way out on Saturday, after teams delivered them food and medicine and had for days pumped water from the cave, providing them with an easier exit.
Their emergence prompted emotional scenes as tearful relatives and rescuers ran to embrace them just before they were helped to tents for medical checks, videos from rescue groups showed.
ZERO VISIBILITY
In their shared hospital room, the five survivors rested on simple metal cots with thin mattresses, lined side by side, footage aired on state television showed.
They were receiving medical treatment and “in good condition”, Malaysian diver Lee Kian Lie said on Sunday.
Rescuers had interviewed the men about how the deeper part of the cave looked, he said in a message to AFP.
“We will continue to search based on the info we have and perhaps we (will be) able to get to the other two,” said Lee, who joined the rescue operation on Friday.
