Miraculous rescue from underground. Several gold diggers stuck in a flooded cave have been rescued by an international team of divers
Rescue teams pulled four people out of a flooded cave in Laos on Saturday, Thai volunteer rescuers said, hours after another man was rescued late on Friday.
The five were among seven Laotians who had entered the cave in Xaisomboun province to search for gold, but were trapped for more than a week when rising water levels blocked their exit. Two others are still missing.
Kengkard Bongkawong, a Thai cave diver who participated in the mission, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that the four trapped people had exited the cave.
Video footage taken by volunteers showed rescuers pulling four Laotian men from the cave with flashlights strapped to their heads and their clothes covered in mud.
They had expressions of joy on their faces and some were crying with relief.
The five rescued people were found by rescue teams on Wednesday but remained stranded. Rescue officials said they would continue the search for the two missing.
A team of volunteers from neighboring Thailand joined the rescue effort last Sunday, and other reinforcements, including divers from Finland, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and Australia, also joined the rescue operation, the volunteer group said on Facebook.
The international rescue team included several members who participated in the 17-day rescue operation in the flooded Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand in 2018.
