{"id":832655,"date":"2026-05-30T16:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/832655\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:05:10","slug":"5-are-freed-in-laos-cave-rescue-after-more-than-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/832655\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Are Freed in Laos Cave Rescue After More Than a Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four more miners trapped in a cave in Laos for more than a week were freed on Saturday, rescuers said, accounting for all five people who had been found there alive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rescuers were still trying to locate two men deeper in the cave.<\/p>\n

The miners entered the cave, in the country\u2019s central Xaysomboun Province in search of gold and became trapped after heavy rains flooded its passages.<\/p>\n

The four men emerged from the cave around 3 p.m. local time on Saturday, said Mikko Paasi, one of the rescue divers leading the effort, after rescuers pumped out enough water for them to escape. In video shared by Mr. Paasi, the team of rescuers clapped and cheered as the men emerged from the cave. One man, sobbing, embraced one of the miners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m relieved,\u201d Mr. Paasi said in an interview shortly after the rescue. \u201cWe really did everything we could, and it\u2019s been a very exhausting week.\u201d<\/p>\n

The miners, seven in total, had planned to stay in the cave for a few days, taking food and water. They were trapped after rain flooded the cave and blocked their exit with gravel and dirt. Rescue divers on Wednesday found five of the men huddled in a chamber around 1,000 feet from the cave\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n

The first miner was rescued<\/a> on Friday, when the tunnels were less extensively drained, Mr. Paasi said. He was given diving gear and guided out of the cave. Mr. Paasi said the rescuers preferred to drain the tunnels to mitigate the dangers of a passing through water but had considered diving all five out as a last resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually we could lower the water level so low that they could actually crawl out,\u201d Mr. Paasi said. He called it \u201cthe best, safest outcome we could have ever imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

One rescue diver, Kengkard Bongkawong, likened<\/a> getting through the tunnels to crawling through a drinking straw. Mr. Paasi and others involved in the rescue were also part of the effort in 2018 that saved<\/a> a youth soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand. May is monsoon season in Laos, and the team closely monitored the weather for signs of heavy rain that could have complicated their work.<\/p>\n

The miners, who have not been officially identified, were in good condition and would be taken to the hospital, Mr. Paasi said. During check-ins in the cave, divers gave them energy gels, electrolytes and rice water.<\/p>\n

Mr. Paasi said that rescuers would keep searching for the two other miners. He said that they had searched the cave thoroughly but that there was a chance they could still find them. \u201cThere\u2019s one little tunnel that they might be in, but we will check out that in the next few moments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Families, including children, of the two men who remained missing were outside the cave, waiting for news, according<\/a> to a social media post by Mr. Kengkard.<\/p>\n

Rescue divers explain how to use diving equipment to the trapped miners in a screen grab from a video.Credit…Norrased Palasing, via Reuters<\/p>\n

The cave is part of an extensive underground network in Xaysomboun, a mountainous province about 70 miles northeast of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Small-scale mining<\/a> is a critical source of income for people in the province because of its significant gold, copper and silver deposits. To supplement their incomes, some villagers risk entering informal mines in search of gold to sell to smaller Chinese operators.<\/p>\n

Francesca Regalado and Muktita Suhartono contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four more miners trapped in a cave in Laos for more than a week were freed on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":832656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[169812,341498,27690,310254,50,57234,103],"class_list":["post-832655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-caves-and-caverns","tag-diving-and-divers","tag-laos","tag-mines-and-mining","tag-news","tag-rescues","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116664384050888396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}