Thai cave rescuers join effort to free trapped Laos villagers
Thai cave veterans were sent into Laos’s flooded mountains as seven villagers remained trapped for five to seven days after rain sealed a cave exit.
Rescue specialists who helped pull 12 boys and their coach from Thailand’s Tham Luang cave in 2018 were back in the same unforgiving business in neighboring Laos, where seven villagers remained trapped in a flooded cave in Xaisomboun province.
Laos authorities requested help from Thailand, and a 26-member Thai rescue team traveled to Long Cheng district to join the effort. Bounkham Luanglath, with Laos' Rescue Volunteer for People, was among those involved as the response widened, and at least two Thailand-based divers from the Tham Luang operation were part of the team sent across the border.
The trapped group entered the cave on or about May 19 or May 20 to search for gold ore. Some reports also said they had gone in to hunt wild animals for subsistence. Heavy rain then triggered flash flooding that blocked the exit and sealed off their way out, turning a routine search into a life-threatening rescue in a remote mountain area where access was already limited and water levels were rising fast.
One member of the group escaped before the entrance was cut off and alerted authorities, but the condition of the other seven remained unknown. Rescue crews spent days pumping water out of the cave, yet had not reached the trapped villagers. Reports placed the time underground at about five to seven days as the operation continued.
The comparison with Tham Luang was immediate and unavoidable. The Thai rescuers brought experience in underwater navigation, confined-space work and pumping operations, skills that were central to the 2018 rescue and now again in demand in Laos. But the setting was different in crucial ways: the cave in Long Cheng district was narrow and flooded, the surrounding terrain was remote, and the rescue effort faced a fresh round of rain that threatened to slow access and complicate already dangerous conditions.
The operation underscored how much the region still depends on a small circle of specialists when caves flood and ordinary response systems cannot keep pace. In Laos, the practical stakes were stark: every hour of pumping, every stretch of passage and every shift in water level could determine whether the trapped villagers were reached in time.
Know something we missed? Have a correction or additional information?
Submit a Tip
