Laos cave rescuers searching nearly 200-foot shaft for missing gold miners
Five miners were rescued from the flooded cave last week.
The search for two remaining gold miners believed to be trapped in a flooded cave in Laos is expected to resume on Thursday, after monsoon rains disrupted the rescue effort, a member of the rescue team told ABC News.
Five other miners were rescued last week -- one of whom was taught to scuba dive to make his way to the mouth of the cave, rescue workers said.
Laos officials learned of the trapped men when a sixth miner who avoided being trapped got out and alerted authorities, rescue workers said.
Robin Cuesta, one of the rescue operation's divers, told ABC News that a search team plans on Thursday to rappel down a newly discovered 196-foot-deep shaft in hopes it will lead to a chamber where they suspect the two miners might be.
The rescue operation inside the cave has been idle for several days due to the heavy monsoon rains hitting the country's Xaisomboun province, rescue officials said.
There have been no new signs indicating where the missing miners are in the underground labyrinth of narrow tunnels, Cuesta told ABC News on Wednesday morning.
A group of seven illegal gold miners entered the cave on May 19 and became trapped when monsoon rains flooded the cave's entrance, rescuers said.
The rescue team was able to pump enough water out of the system for four miners to crawl out of the muddy abyss on Saturday, authorities said. A day earlier, a fifth miner was able to crawl and swim out of the cave after he was taught how to scuba dive, rescuers said.
Knocking sounds in the cave explained
Rescue workers reported earlier this week that they heard a "knocking sound" from inside the system as they searched for the missing miners, sparking hope they were still alive.
But during an interview on Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, one of the rescue divers, Josh Richards, said the knocking sound was actually him trying to evoke a response from the trapped men.
"I will clarify that the knocking noise that folks have referred to, that was me," Richards said in the interview of his efforts on Sunday to pinpoint the missing men. "That was me in the actual vertical tube, knocking against the wall and then trying to listen for a response."
Richards said he did hear something, describing it more as "maybe a scratch" that may have been caused by bats disturbed by his knocking.
"So, I think there’s been a lot of excitement about this knocking sound," Richards said. "The reality is, I was the guy in the tube, and I certainly didn’t hear someone knocking back. That is not what happened."
Possible location of the 2 remaining miners
In an interview on Saturday with ABC News, Richards said rescuers suspect the missing miners could be in a sixth chamber past the one where the five other miners were located.
But Richards said some of the rescued miners have told officials that there were only six of them trapped in the cave.
"The miners are also reporting that it was just them. It was six of them," Richards said.
Richards said that one possible theory is that eight miners went into the cave and three got out on their own and went into hiding because their mining activities are illegal in Laos and subject to prosecution.
Richards, who has since returned to his home in Australia, described conditions in the cave as "truly horrendous" with passages so narrow he could barely squeeze through.
"To put it in perspective, in the first 20 meters, as we were heading in, I nearly drowned ... in about an inch of water," said Richards, explaining that his helmet got caught on the roof of a narrow part of the cave and "drove my face into the mud."
Richards added, "I made a joke that it felt a bit like being given birth to again because, honestly, it was such a squeeze all the way through some of these places in order to get through."
ABC News' Britt Clennett contributed to this report.
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