The men have been trapped for 10 days inside the cave after entering the site to search for valuable minerals before rising floodwaters blocked their exit. Five survivors were located alive on Wednesday, while two members of the group remain unaccounted for.
Rescuers successfully evacuated the first survivor on Friday after a complex operation through submerged and narrow cave passages.

Officials said the remaining four men were not yet ready for extraction and that efforts were continuing to lower water levels and improve conditions for a safe evacuation.

“One person has made it out safely, and we will not stop until the remaining four make it home too,” Thai cave diver Norrased Palasing, who is participating in the operation, said in a social media post on Saturday.
Video footage released by rescuers showed the first survivor emerging from flooded tunnels with assistance from divers before being wrapped in a thermal blanket and moved to safety.

Authorities did not identify which of the five survivors was evacuated.

The trapped villagers have been supplied with water, soft food and emergency blankets, though footage recorded inside the cave indicated their physical condition had deteriorated during the prolonged ordeal.

The rescue operation has drawn specialists from Laos, Thailand, Japan and Malaysia, with Indonesian, French and Australian experts also reported to have joined the effort. Several members of the international team previously participated in the high-profile 2018 rescue of a youth football team trapped in a cave in northern Thailand.

Rescuers face difficult conditions inside the cave system. According to Thai rescue worker Kengkaj Bongkawong, teams must navigate more than 200 meters of narrow, twisting, flooded passages before reaching a submerged tunnel that leads to the trapped men.

The operation is complicated by poor visibility, confined spaces and the challenge of guiding survivors with no diving experience through underwater sections of the cave. Video released by rescuers showed divers instructing the trapped men on the use of breathing equipment and underwater survival techniques ahead of their evacuation.

Search efforts for the two missing villagers are expected to focus on deeper sections of the cave beyond the area where the survivors were found.

Rescue officials said the area is heavily flooded, increasing the risks for divers conducting the search.
The cave is located in the mountainous province of Xaisomboun, approximately 120 kilometers north of the Lao capital, Vientiane.

The four were among five Italian divers who went missing while exploring caves at a depth of about 50 meters in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italian authorities. The Maldives sets a recreational diving limit of 30 meters.

The body of a fifth Italian diver, identified as a diving instructor, was recovered earlier outside the cave system, Maldivian authorities said.

Search operations resumed Monday after being temporarily suspended following the death of Mohamed Mahudhee, a diver with the Maldives National Defence Force who died from decompression illness during the recovery mission on Saturday.

The Maldives National Defence Force said the first recovered Italian diver was found about 60 meters deep inside a cave estimated to extend roughly 200 feet in length. Officials believed the remaining divers were also trapped within the same underwater structure.

Three Finnish cave divers Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Grönqvist joined the operation on Sunday, according to the diving safety organization DAN Europe.

The Finnish team coordinated with Maldivian military personnel and local officials in difficult sea conditions that complicated recovery efforts in the Indian Ocean archipelago, authorities said.

The incident has drawn attention to the risks associated with deep cave diving in the Maldives, a major global destination for recreational scuba tourism known for its coral reefs and underwater cave systems.