They were trapped for 11 days deep underground in a flooded cave in Laos. They were starving and freezing. Then, suddenly, the water level dropped — and they decided to seize the chance to get out on their own, rather than wait for rescuers to return after already finding them and leaving with another trapped man.
Images of the four survivors emerging Saturday from the cave entrance, completely surprising the rescuers outside and embracing them, stunned many around the world and received global coverage.
Footage of 4 trapped villagers emerging from flooded cave and hugging rescuers
CNN on Sunday published an interview with one of the survivors, 23-year-old Mee Singfamalai, who is now being treated at a local hospital. He said he and the three others who made it out on their own had to crawl — and at times dive through narrow, flooded passages, sometimes with very little oxygen — covering 260 meters from the inner chamber where they had been trapped until they emerged from the cave and finally saw daylight. CNN noted that the distance is equivalent to the height of a 78-story tower.
“I was afraid because we were there alone,” Mee said. “We were there for a long time and the water dried up. It was too cold inside, so we decided to crawl out.”
He said that in some places, the water reached a depth of 1 meter. “Sometimes we had to dive, sometimes we had to crawl. We crawled slowly. The passage was really about the size of one person,” he described.
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Trapped villager emerges from flooded cave and embraces rescuer
(Photo: Handout / Adisak Wongsoraya/AFP)
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Mee Singfamalai is helped away from the cave by a rescuer
(Photo: Chakkrit Taengtang/via Reuters)
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Caring for survivors after they rescued themselves from the cave
(Photo: The Saithan Saphanboon Foundation via Getty Images)
Seven local villagers entered the cave in Laos on May 20 in search of gold deposits and became trapped inside after heavy rains caused a flash flood and a collapse that blocked the exit. An eighth villager managed to escape and alert authorities. Since then, a broad international rescue operation has been underway, with rescuers from around the world, including divers from Thailand, Finland, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, France and Australia. Some of them also took part in the famous 2018 rescue of a youth soccer team trapped for two weeks in a flooded cave in Thailand.
The operation has taken place under difficult conditions. The cave is located in a remote mountainous area in Xaisomboun province, about 120 kilometers north of the capital, Vientiane, and reaching its entrance requires a steep 4-kilometer hike. The entrance is narrow, steep and rocky, and in some of the narrow passages inside the cave — sometimes only 50 centimeters wide — rescuers had to crawl among sharp rocks, mud and water. They worked to pump water out, but continued heavy rains made it difficult to lower the water level and advance.
Rescuers located Mee and four of his companions only Wednesday, a full week after they entered. The rescue itself began Friday, when divers brought one member of the group out. They planned to continue the operation slowly, but were surprised the next day when the four remaining survivors emerged on their own. They were filmed coming out of the cave one after another, hugging rescuers and shouting with joy.
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Rescuers found the survivors inside the flooded cave in Laos
(Photo: Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue/Handout via Reuters)
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Rescuers raced against time to rescue the villagers
(Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue/Handout via Reuters)
The four were evacuated to a local hospital, and authorities said they were in good condition. Two other trapped people have not yet been located, and continued rain in the area remains a major obstacle. Rescuers’ plan to enter the cave Sunday was postponed until Monday.
In the CNN interview, survivor Mee said he and his friends were exhausted and had not eaten anything during the entire time they were trapped deep underground. They slept whenever possible and prayed for salvation.
“We slept hugging each other, four or five of us. That helped a lot. We did not have any blankets,” he said.
He said they never lost hope. “I always believed I would survive. I had to come back to see my sisters and my mother,” he said. “When we came outside and saw people cheering for us, I felt like I had been given a new life. It was amazing. Suddenly I had hope.”
In Laos, a communist dictatorship, illegal mining has expanded in recent years in remote areas where enforcement by authorities is more limited. Mee said he had previously found gold elsewhere, so he and his friends decided to try their luck in the cave where they became trapped.
“We are villagers. We go to the mountains to make a living. We heard there was gold there, so we went to look. Then the cave flooded and we could not get out.”
Asked whether he would ever risk searching for gold in caves again, he replied: “Never. You would have to kill me if you wanted to force me to go inside.”
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Rescuers pumped water out of the flooded cave
(Photo: Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue/Handout via Reuters)
He said the first thing he ate after leaving the cave was congee, a savory Asian rice porridge. He is still able to eat only soft food and is recovering in the hospital. Two of his friends were injured and are suffering from pain and infections, he said, but their condition has improved after receiving medication.
Mee also said he and the other survivors who made it out did not meet the two missing people who have yet to be found, and he believes they entered the cave from another area. He and the other survivors are now helping rescuers in their efforts to locate the missing. According to CNN, the details they provided helped draw a map of the cave’s layout and raised the possibility of another inner chamber that rescuers have not yet reached.
Five inner chambers have reportedly been found in the cave, but according to Australian diver Josh Richards, there may be a sixth “significant air pocket” about 100 meters from the farthest point reached by rescuers. To reach it, however, they would have to cross what he described as a “pretty deadly” passage. That passage, he said, is “even narrower and nastier” than the other tight passages in the cave, but the chamber beyond it is likely the only place where the two missing people could be.
Yoshitaka Isaji, a Japanese diver also assisting in the rescue operation, told AP that trying to reach that deep chamber would be especially complex.
“The area between the fifth chamber and the sixth chamber is frighteningly narrow, and no one has yet seen what it looks like from the inside. Beyond that, it is a cramped space, and of course the water there is muddy, so visibility is zero. I also heard that the route there requires you to twist your body to get through,” he said.
He estimated that even if rescuers manage to reach the deeper chamber and find the missing people inside, it will be very difficult to get them out. In such a case, rescuers would first send them water and food, and only afterward attempt to extract them once the water is drained. Isaji also raised the possibility that the two missing people may not be in the cave at all, since the five survivors who were rescued were not with them.