Five found alive in Laos Grotte search, two still missing

Five of the seven people trapped in a Laos grotte were found alive on Wednesday after floodwaters cut them off in Xaysomboun province, northeast of Vientiane. The group had gone down on May 20 to search for gold and then spent about a week underground with no sign of life.

Mikko Paasi, a Finnish diver involved in the mission, said Wednesday morning he had "bon espoir" of finding the trapped people alive. He described the site as "un environnement extrêmement reculé et hostile" and said, "Ils sont entrés dans la mine avec des ressources leur permettant de survivre plusieurs jours sous terre."

Xaysomboun rescue reaches five

A Laotian rescue association posted that five people had been found alive and safe and that two people were still being searched for. Thai rescuer Kengkach Bangkawong later said in a Facebook video, "Nous avons atteint notre cible à 16 h 30. Nous avons trouvé cinq personnes et recherchons les deux autres."

The seven villagers had been surprised by a sudden rise in water after entering the abandoned gold mine. Rescuers were dealing with flooding, collapse risks and a lack of oxygen, and the trapped group was reportedly in a chamber about 300 meters from the cave entrance.

Mikko Paasi and the mine

Paasi’s presence added experience to a search in one of Laos’s most difficult settings. He had also participated in the 2018 rescue of young footballers trapped in a cave in Thailand, and his assessment pointed to the same hard reality facing teams in Xaysomboun: a remote underground site where every meter forward carried new risk.

For the two people still missing, the operation shifted from rescue of survivors to recovery of the remaining pair while teams kept working inside the mine de or cave. The next step is the continued search for those two villagers after five were brought out alive and safe.