Video: watson/Lucas Zollinger
May 27, 2026, 1:23 p.mMay 27, 2026, 3:55 p.m
Cheers and great joy in the jungle of Laos: Rescue teams have found five of the gold prospectors who had been trapped in a flooded cave in Laos for more than a week alive. The men were safe, the Laotian rescue organization Rescue Volunteer for People and the Thai rescue unit MTK announced in the afternoon (local time).
Video: watson/Lucas Zollinger
Videos from the Southeast Asian country shared on social media showed rescuers hugging each other and shouting with joy, some breaking into tears of relief. The search is still ongoing for two other missing people. No further details about the rescue were initially known.
However, Laotian rescue teams later said that the men they found were still in the cave. “We will send food and medicine to treat the five people first,” it said in a message on Facebook. “The survivors are reportedly hungry and exhausted, but in stable condition,” wrote the Laotian Times newspaper.
What had happened?
The seven men had been trapped in the cave in Longchaeng district since May 19. Together with three other villagers they were looking 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 were able to escape from the masses of water and alerted the authorities.
Emergency services discovered the men safely after days of searching.Image: keystone
It had previously been said that the rescuers had worked their way to within 20 meters of the men’s suspected location. They were often only able to crawl their way through extremely narrow passages and had to dive through narrow underwater passages.
Thailand supports the mission
The water levels in the cave have fallen significantly since Tuesday, the news portal “Thai Enquirer” quoted Thai operations coordinator Kengkaj Bangkaowong as saying. Now he wrote on Facebook: “At 4:30 p.m. (local time) we reached our destination. We found five people. We’re 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 the event of new floods. Teams also tried to improve the poor air quality in the cave with ventilation pipes. At the same time, other rescuers looked outside the cave for alternative access via vertical rock shafts.
Remembering cave drama in Thailand
The rescue operation reminded many of the drama surrounding Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand eight years ago. At that time, twelve young footballers and their coach were trapped in the flooded cave for more than two weeks after heavy rain – and were finally freed by international cave divers and special forces. (sda/dpa)