Vientiane, Laos
Rescuers in Laos say they’re investigating a attainable “knocking response” deep inside a flooded cave community the place two males are believed to stay trapped days after one was rescued and 4 others crawled to freedom.
The growth may point out attainable indicators of life however rescuers stress they want to examine additional earlier than saying for positive whether or not the knocks are from the stranded males.
The response sounds got here as rescuers rappelled down a newly found vertical shaft which will present a safer entry right into a flooded cave and lead to a chamber the place the lads may very well be.
“We still cannot confirm that the knocking sounds came from trapped victims. However, we can confirm that there were definite knocking sounds in response to the signals,” Thai specialist cave diver Kengkard Bongkawong informed NCS by telephone on Monday.
Rescuers have now heard knocking responses on a minimum of two events within the final 24 hours.
Thai rescue technician Manat Artmongkron mentioned that the response was heard 70 meters (230 toes) down the shaft.
“The sounds appeared to come from just 5 meters away, raising hopes that the missing individuals may be nearby,” he wrote Monday on Facebook.
The villagers’ ordeal started on May 20 when eight males entered a cave in central Laos in search of gold, however turned trapped when heavy rain blocked the exit.
A survivor managed to elevate the alarm, triggering a complex operation involving specialists who have been summoned from around the globe to the nation’s central Xaisomboun province.
Five males emerged alive from the tunnel on Friday and Saturday, leaving rescuers looking for the remaining two, who entered individually through a distinct route.
Attention turned Monday to the vertical cave shaft that plunges greater than 100 meters right into a darkish chamber that rescuers hope will present a safer entry right into a flooded cave.
“It was an amazing find,” Australian diver Josh Richards mentioned in a video clip late Sunday. “It’s also directly in the area we need to be connecting to.”
Rescuers are working with a map drawn with the help of the 5 survivors they usually hope the shaft will join to one other passage past the chamber the place they have been discovered.
“From what we know, there is a significant air pocket that is considerably further on – another 100 meters or so, through fairly lethal passage,” Richards mentioned.
He described this stretch as an “even tighter and more unpleasant” passage than something the divers have traversed to date, and the “only place” the place the missing two may very well be.
Conditions on the cave entrance stay difficult, with the newest rainfall inflicting flash flooding.
Bounkham Luanglath, president of the Lao People’s Volunteer Association, mentioned Monday that work continues to “pump water out to drain the cave as quickly as possible.”
Other strategies embody blocking water sources within the space and constructing extra water retention ponds, on high of the present one, to stop additional flooding.
Of the survivors, one was guided to security on Friday, whereas the opposite 4 managed to escape unaided the subsequent day after in depth efforts to drain the floodwater from the world.
All 5 are recovering in hospital after surviving for greater than every week on water and sleep to protect their power earlier than assist arrived.