International Cave Diving Experts Join Xaysomboun Rescue Mission as Two Villagers Remain Trapped

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International cave diving specialists from several countries are joining rescue efforts in Xaysomboun as the high-risk operation inside a flooded cave system in Long Chaeng district intensifies to find the last two villagers.

Xaysomboun provincial authorities requested approval from Lao immigration for six foreign rescue specialists and their technical diving equipment to enter the country, amid challenging underwater conditions, narrow passages, and ongoing rainfall.

Lee Kian Lie, a cave and mine diving specialist from Malaysia known for expertise in navigating narrow underwater passages, arrived at the rescue site on 28 May.

Several more specialists from Australia, Indonesia, France, Japan, and Thailand are expected to arrive on 29 May.

They are bringing along advanced rescue equipment, including underwater lighting systems, oxygen tanks, navigation tools, cameras, and diving gear designed for confined cave passages.

The notice said the international rescue team is an emergency crew prepared for possible worsening flooding conditions inside the cave and rising water levels caused by incoming rainfall.

Rescue teams on site have completed pumping water from the cave and are now waiting for water to dry up before continuing the operation.

Rescue Efforts Intensify

The rescue operation has now entered its ninth day.

On 27 May, Lao and Thai rescue teams confirmed that five villagers had been found alive inside the flooded cave system after days underground. The survivors were reported to be exhausted and hungry but in stable condition, while rescue teams continue searching for the remaining two villagers.

Thai rescue team leader Kengkat Bongkawong said on his facebook account that cave sketches based on information provided by survivors indicate that reaching the remaining two trapped villagers will be significantly more difficult. Divers may need to descend an additional 30 meters through even narrower underwater passages while checking multiple branching chambers along the route.

He added that the increasingly dangerous conditions were one of the main reasons authorities requested additional professional cave diving specialists from several countries to reinforce the mission.

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