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Heavy rains could delay the search operations for two people still missing in a flooded cave in Laos after the rescue of five others who were trapped underground for over a week.
Finnish diver Mikko Passi, one of the first international rescuers to arrive at the site, informed the Associated Press that rains had filled the cave up to the second chamber, preventing divers from entering the cave until pumps can lower the water level.
How were the men trapped in the Laos cave?
Seven people reportedly entered the cave last week to look for valuable minerals; however, due to a flash flood, they were trapped with no way out.
One other person escaped and alerted the authorities.
Rescue teams from Laos and neighbouring Thailand have been working together in the past week at the site in the central province of Xaisomboun, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the capital, Vientiane.
They were joined by divers from countries including Finland, Malaysia, Indonesia, France, Japan, and Australia.
Several of the rescuers in the mission were part of the 2018 team in northern Thailand that saved 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave.
The rescued men are being treated at a local hospital and are doing well.
According to rescuers, there discovered five chambers in the system so far, and the five people were found in the fifth chamber.
Paasi told the outlet that according to the survivors, there is a narrow crack in the fifth chamber that could lead to a deeper part of the cave system.
"This was the only place that we haven't checked in the mine, where the two lost miners could still be," he said during a video interview.
He added, "Now there's a theory that, through that small crack, it still continues, and there's a sixth chamber, which gives us hope now that, if we could penetrate that small restriction, we might be able to reach the sixth chamber and then see what is there."
The five people who have been rescued were first found Wednesday. They were identified by their first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing and Laen.
