Latest news Five prospectors rescued in Laos cave - search continues
Jubilation and great joy in the jungles of Laos: rescue teams have found five of the gold seekers who had been trapped in a flooded cave in Laos for more than a week alive. The men are safe, the Laotian rescue organization Rescue Volunteer for People and the Thai rescue unit MTK announced this afternoon (local time).
27.05.2026, 13:48
SDA
Videos posted on social media from the Southeast Asian country showed rescuers hugging each other and shouting for joy, with some bursting into tears of relief. However, the search is still on for two more missing people. No further details of the rescue were initially released.
What had happened?
The seven men had been trapped in the cave in the Longchaeng district since May 19. Together with three other villagers, they were searching for gold there when the cave suddenly flooded after heavy rain and partially collapsed. For a long time, it was completely unclear whether they were still alive. However, three of the men had managed to escape the floods and alerted the authorities.
It had previously been reported that the rescuers had worked their way to within less than 20 meters of where the men were believed to be. They were often only able to crawl along extremely narrow corridors and had to dive through narrow underwater passages.
Thailand supports the mission
However, the water levels in the cave have dropped significantly since Tuesday, the news portal "Thai Enquirer" quoted Thai mission coordinator Kengkaj Bangkaowong as saying. Now he wrote on Facebook: "At 16:30 (local time) we reached our destination. We have found five people. We are still looking for the other two."
The government in Laos had asked Thailand for help - also because of the experience of Thai emergency services in the internationally acclaimed rescue of a youth football team from the Tham Luang Cave in 2018.
Rescue teams from the neighboring country arrived at the scene of the accident in the northern province of Xaisomboun at the weekend. The area is characterized by rugged mountains and dense jungle and is located about 130 kilometers northeast of the capital Vientiane. The Finnish cave diver Mikko Paasi and his Thai colleague Norrased Palasing, who were already involved in the spectacular rescue in Tham Luang, are also supporting the mission.
According to Kengkaj, the emergency services had previously installed additional oxygen cylinders and safety systems in case of further flooding. Teams also tried to improve the poor air quality in the cave with ventilation pipes. At the same time, other rescuers outside the cave were looking for alternative access routes via vertical rock shafts.
Reminiscent of the cave drama in Thailand
The rescue operation reminded many of the drama surrounding the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand eight years ago. Back then, twelve young footballers and their coach were trapped in the flooded cave for more than two weeks after heavy rainfall - and were finally rescued by international cave divers and special forces.
