Hope is fading for two villagers still missing inside a flooded Laos cave after rescuers suspended their underground search, warning conditions have become too dangerous to continue.
Rescue teams halted the search on Saturday local time after worsening conditions inside the cave made further attempts too risky.
The decision comes more than two weeks after seven men became trapped while searching for bats and gold in a cave system in Laos’ Xaisomboun province. Five have since been rescued, but the remaining two have not been located despite an extensive multinational effort involving rescuers from Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Finland, France, Indonesia and Japan.
Malaysian cave diver Lee Kian Lie, who was involved in the operation, said rescuers had come agonisingly close.
“We were so close,” he told AFP. “The water in the cave was already manageable, but the cave entrance started to become unstable.”
Lie said continuing the search would be “high risk”, with teams instead focusing on pumping water from the cave system and digging channels to help it drain faster.
“Perhaps a miracle will happen,” he said.
The seven villagers entered the cave on May 20 before heavy rain flooded the tunnels and landslides blocked the entrance.
Last week, Australian cave diver Josh Richards was part of the international team that successfully freed five survivors after 10 days trapped underground.
Speaking to 7NEWS after the first rescue, Richards described the survivor as “very cold, very tired” but in surprisingly good condition after spending days trapped in what rescuers called a “claustrophobic hell”.
The rescue mission has since become increasingly complicated as rain continues to fall across the region.
Thai lead rescuer Kengkad Bongkawong said no one would be allowed back inside the cave because it was now “too risky for anyone to enter”.
While water pumping operations will continue from outside the cave, Bongkawong acknowledged rescuers do not know the current condition of the two missing men.
He said food had been placed at various points inside the cave in the hope the pair may still be able to reach it.
With further rain forecast and access to the cave deemed too dangerous, hopes of bringing the final two men home are rapidly diminishing.
