Vientiane, 27 May 2026
Five gold prospectors were rescued alive from a flooded cave in northern Laos on Tuesday after being trapped for more than a week, rescue organizations announced.
The men were discovered by rescue workers in a cave in Longchaeng district, Xaisomboun province, where they had been since May 19. They were found exhausted and hungry but in stable condition, according to rescue workers.
The rescue was announced by the Lao rescue organization Rescue Volunteer for People and the Thai rescue unit MTK. Medical teams were on standby to treat the men immediately after extraction, the Lao organization said.
Dramatic Footage from Inside the Cave
Finnish cave diver Mikko Paasi, who assisted in the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand, posted a video on social media showing him navigating extremely narrow cave passages with brown water and eventually finding the five trapped men.
Paasi stated that the extraction could prove extremely difficult. Rescuers had to crawl through extremely narrow passages and dive through tight underwater sections in recent days.
Rescue workers are pumping water out of the cave to make the exit passable and are also checking whether water could enter the cave again. Additional helpers are being organized for transport from the hard-to-access area, which is traversed by mountains and jungle.