5 of 7 villagers trapped in flooded Laos cave found alive: ‘very grateful for your help’

Around 4.30pm, a Thai-led rescue team finally broke through to an area where they found five of the missing villagers perched on the ledge just above the floodwaters, after diving for four days and navigating swamped narrow passages in a bid to find a way into the cave complex in central Xaysomboun province.

Smiling at the camera despite the chest-high muddy waters, a Thai rescue diver told the camera that he had found five members of the Laos group, who were trapped after floods and landslides hit the cave while they were searching for gold on May 20.

“Everyone is safe and we will rescue them out next,” he said in the social media post from Thailand Rescue Diver.

The survivors, some smiling and bowing with hands clasped in a “wai”, as a gesture of thanks, appeared muddied and dishevelled in the video.

They were sitting on a wedge of rock just a foot above the water, unable to stand up with the craggy cave roof centimetres above their heads.