Rescuers race to free seven people trapped in flooded Laos cave

A team of experts who helped free a teen football team from a Thai cave in 2018 are among the rescuers. Rescuers race to free villagers trapped in flooded Laos cave The villagers entered the cave in search of gold when they got trapped almost a week ago. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Rescuers are navigating narrow chambers and muddy waters as they try to reach those trapped Rescuers trying to fix an orange pump onto one of the cave's entrances Rescuers race to free seven people trapped in flooded Laos cave Rescuers are racing against time to free seven people who have been trapped for nearly a week in a flooded cave in Laos. The seven were part of a group of villagers from the central province of Xaysomboun who had gone into the cave on Wednesday in search of gold and wildlife, but could not get out as rain and landslides blocked the cave's entrance. Footage shared by the rescue groups show the cave divers crawling into the cave through narrow, muddy passageways that are almost completely flooded. Several experts involved in the dramatic rescue of a team of teenage footballers trapped deep inside a Thai cave back in 2018 are among those helping with the current rescue effort. A survivor who had managed to escape alerted the authorities about those still trapped, according to reports. The cave in question is frequented by villagers looking for gold deposits, Bounkham Luanglath, who leads the Laos' Rescue Volunteer for People, told the Associated Press. The cave system, which extends deep underground, is also extremely narrow, with some chambers measuring only about 50cm (20in) wide, rescuers say. Rescuers are working to pump water out of the cave. They managed to clear out some rocks at the front of the cave on Monday and were able to survey the deeper sections of it, but water levels have continued to rise, preventing them from going further, rescuers say. They have not detected any signs of life so far, but Kengkard Bongkawong of the Thai rescue group Metta Tham Rescue believe they are reaching close to the point where they believe the people are trapped, saying he estimated they were "less than 20m (65ft) away". "All day, all night, water was still being pumped out," Kengkard wrote on Facebook last night. Kengkard was part of the team that helped bring 12 young Thai boys and their football coach to safety after they were trapped for two weeks inside a flooded cave underneath a mountain in Thailand's Chiang Rai province in 2018. The extraordinary rescue involved more than 10,000 experts from around the world and drew intense global attention. Several films and documentaries have been made based on it, including the feature film Thirteen Lives and the documentary The Rescue. The full story of Thailand’s extraordinary cave rescue Six tourists who drank bootleg alcohol in a Laos holiday town died from suspected methanol poisoning. Ten people linked to six deaths at a hostel in Laos are given suspended sentences and fines. People scrambled to safety as the ferry sank on the Mekong River, with a local woman and two children feared dead. The court said the man poisoned the tycoon for sidelining him after they secured a Netflix deal. The British-era Gymkhana Club is facing eviction, triggering a legal battle and a wave of nostalgia. The BBC's Sumedha Pal described how difficult it was to be standing in the streets of Delhi as temperatures rose to 45C . At least 82 people have been killed and two are missing after a gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China on Sunday, officials say. On China's tightly-controlled internet, people are calling for justice and questioning how this happened.