RACE AGAINST THE CLOCK

Rescuers Scramble to Reach Pair Trapped Deep Inside Flooded Cave

Villagers first entered the underground complex nearly two weeks ago.

Search-and-rescue workers are scrambling to save the two remaining people still stranded inside a cave after the complex flooded due to heavy rainfall in Laos almost two weeks ago. A team of experts has already retrieved the other five members of the group of villagers, who are understood to have entered the cave, located around 75 miles north of the capital of Vientiane, last month in search of gold and other valuable minerals. Rescue workers from Laos and nearby Thailand are leading the efforts, supported by divers from Malaysia, Finland, Indonesia, France, Japan, and Australia. Some of those divers previously worked on the daring rescue of a group of schoolboys from another flooded cave in Thailand back in 2018. Lee Kian Lie, a Malaysian diver helping with the Laotian rescue mission, said Monday they had begun trying to drain the cave. “We will go into the suspected area to continue the search if the water level is lowered,” he said, adding that other members of the group are exploring other possible routes to reach the remaining two villagers.