Loas Cave Rescue Mission, Two Men are Unfound

On May 20, 2026, seven miners started their expedition through mountainous terrain to reach a cave, and hiked almost 2.4 miles (4 km). A monsoon struck while the men were still in the cave which caused a flash flood inside the cave. During the flash flood one man managed to escape the cave and alert authorities, while the other men were stranded inside. A team of international expert divers went and found five of the miners, but the other two still were stranded. The search team called off the search for the last two people because the cave entrance was too unstable.

When the search team found the five miners, the team successfully guided only one of the five men out. The following day pumps were used to lower the water level, enough to create small air pockets which helped the four remaining miners swim out on their own. “I was literally about to head into the cave myself when all of a sudden we heard all these cheers and spun around, and four very muddy miners just suddenly emerged from the cave on their own,” said Australian diver Josh Richards.

The divers then tried to find the last two miners, but the search was called off when the entrance collapsed and a 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck the area, making the entire cave unstable.

The incident is actually part of a bigger problem in Laos. Because the country is poor, people are driven to mine for gold without proper safety equipment. People hope that the government will finally stop illegal mining and improve worker safety because of this incident.