Rescue teams in Laos have not yet begun a mission to recover five people trapped in a flooded cave, despite knowing their location.
The operation is considered extremely risky because of tight tunnels, high water levels and an acute risk of collapse.
Hopes are meanwhile fading of finding two men who are still missing.
Rescuers have now searched around 95% of the tunnel system but have so far found no trace of the two, Finnish cave diver Mikko Paasi told broadcaster ThaiPBS World on Friday.
“We don’t have many places left to look,” Paasi told Thai broadcaster PBS World. “The chances are very slim of locating these guys."
Paasi is considered one of the most experienced cave divers in the world and is supporting coordination of the mission in Laos. He also played a key role in the spectacular rescue of a youth football team from Thailand's Tham Luang cave in 2018.
There were no dry spots in the previously inaccessible areas of the cave where people could have survived for a week, Paasi said.
The group has been trapped for 10 days several hundred metres from the entrance after heavy rainfall flooded the gold mine and triggered a landslide. Colleagues who managed to escape raised the alarm.
The rescue is considered extremely dangerous. According to the divers, visibility in the tight tunnels is practically zero.
“When we are underwater and trying to look for them, we literally feel with our legs and arms,” he said. “You can’t see anything.”
Rescuers are considering two options to reach the group of five gold prospectors: either to pump more water out of the cave, or bring them out by diving through the flooded tunnels. Pumping would be the safer solution, Paasi said, but has so far not been effective because of the narrow shafts.
A member of the Thai rescue team also acknowledged that a recovery by diving would be almost impossible under these difficult conditions.
The emergency teams were therefore continuing to search for alternative access routes and natural shafts in the mountain through which a rescue could be possible, ThaiPBS World quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, the authorities are using heavy equipment to build a road through the jungle to the cave because the remote region is extremely difficult to reach. This is intended to allow pumps and supplies to be transported more quickly. A catch basin for the pumped-out water is also to be built.
The five survivors appear to be stable physically and mentally. As miners, they were used to tight underground spaces and do not suffer from claustrophobia, Paasi said. They also had enough food and water with them because they had planned to spend several days underground anyway.
According to a Thai rescue organization, further international specialists have now been requested. Experts from Malaysia, Japan and France are expected, among others. Australian diving specialist Josh Richards is also on his way.
