Emergency teams are racing to reach a group of villagers believed to be trapped inside a cave in Xaisomboun, a central province in Laos.
The seven are thought to have entered the cave last Wednesday (May 20) in search of gold and wildlife, but were unable to make it back out after heavy rain triggered landslides and blocked the exit.
Ongoing bad weather has continued to hamper access to the site, complicating efforts to reach the group, who are believed to be from the province of Xaysomboun, according to BBC News.
Rescuers say the situation is becoming increasingly urgent as water continues to rise inside the cave system.
Officials believe one person who went into the cave managed to escape and then alerted authorities that others were still inside.
The Lao organisation Rescue Volunteer for People, which is coordinating with local authorities, said in a Facebook update that Tuesday’s operation plan (May 26) involved checking air shafts above the cave to identify possible entry points and help locate those trapped.
Rescuers from neighbouring Thailand travelled to the area over the weekend to support the mission.
More than 100 people are now said to be involved in the operation, CNN reports, including 15 experienced divers and specialists who were part of the widely reported 2018 rescue of a youth football team trapped in a Thai cave.
Divers have reportedly made it around 100 metres into the flooded, tight passageways. Rescuers believe the villagers could be roughly 30 metres beyond the furthest point currently reachable. Teams have been working to pump water out in an effort to extend the search deeper into the cave.
As for how they may have managed to survive, reports suggest the group could have taken shelter on ‘an elevated ledge inside the cave that benefits from continuous airflow’.
Thai diver Kengkad Bongkawong described this as a ‘the safest spot’ and said he believes everyone could survive the ordeal if they are indeed in that location.
“That’s why I believe, given the geography and the living conditions of the victims, if they are in that specific area, their chances of survival are very high – very high,” Bongkawong (who also took part in the 2018 efforts to save the soccer team in who became trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non) told CNN.
Despite Bongkawong’s optimism, rescuers have cautioned that the group’s exact condition remains unclear.
So far, teams at the site have reportedly not found any confirmed signs of life inside the cave.