Search crews in Laos stopped looking on Saturday for the last two men trapped in a semi-submerged cave after the entrance began to give way, ending an intense rescue operation that had already brought five other men out alive. Lee Kian Lie said the rescuers were so close, but the cave entrance became unstable and the work could no longer continue safely.
The search was called off a week after divers and other rescue teams first found the group trapped in the caves on May 20. One man was pulled out by divers on May 29, and four more were guided out the next day after water was pumped from a flooded cavern. The five had been hunting for bats for food and searching the area for gold when they became stranded underground.
The last two men could not be found despite the effort of teams from Laos, Finland, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and Australia. Lee said the cave water was already manageable, but the entrance started to become unstable, making any further move a high risk. He said, “Perhaps a miracle will happen,” even as rescuers stepped back from the cave mouth.
The decision came as rising rainwater had narrowed the vertical space inside the cave to about 30cm, roughly half of what rescuers had worked in earlier in the operation. Kengkad Bongkawong said no one is allowed inside the cave because it is too risky for anyone to enter, though pumping would continue outside and food had been left at several points in case the missing men managed to make their way out.
That leaves the rescue at a hard pause, with the most basic question still unanswered: whether the two men are alive, and if they are, where in the cave they might be. For now, the only work left is outside the entrance, where crews can still move water but not people.
