Australian diver leaves Laos cave rescue after 5 saved

The Australian diver taking part in a cave rescue in Laos has left the country, after several days crawling through muddy passages trying to find two people still missing.

Adelaide's Josh Richards arrived in Laos last Friday, after being called into the rescue team on short notice.

Five of the seven people in the cave have been freed, either by the rescue team or by leaving the cave on their own.

With efforts to locate the final two men now splitting between the cave's main entrance and a vertical shaft above the cave, Mr Richards said he left the team to allow people with different skill sets to replace him.

"Not only is there not any diving happening because it's too dangerous to push ahead, but even when they do succeed at what they're trying to achieve, there'll be no diving either," Mr Richards told the ABC from Bangkok, as he travelled back to Australia.

Battling the elements

Mr Richards said Thai and Laos cave rescue teams were still trying to push into the main mine entrance, pumping out floodwater to possibly regain access.

"We had significant flooding over the past few days," he said.

"Last time I checked in with the team, the crawl from the entrance through to chamber 1 is now completely flooded.

"They won't push ahead until all of the water is cleared from the entrance through to chamber 5."

A vertical shaft, found in the jungle above the cave, has also been investigated to see if it drops into a chamber where the remaining two people could be located.

"I dropped a rock down it, it took about four seconds to hit the ground below so we knew that it was roughly 80 metres deep," Mr Richards said.

"[Fellow diver] Robin [Cuestra] then repelled into that hole the following day, and found that there are two tunnels heading downwards, but they're both completely choked with rockfall."

Mr Richards said the teams remaining were best placed to continue those two operations.

"I can repel … I can ascend back up the rope," he said.

"I don't feel comfortable or confident enough to do that when I'm hanging 60m down into an unknown hole in Laos."

An exhausting operation

Mr Richards said it would take him some time to digest what he had experienced in Laos.

"We've all come out here to do the best that we can," he said.

"While the search continues and folks continue pushing on to find the missing two, at the end of the day there are five people who are alive, and I like to think that my presence and the presence of the other international divers certainly contributed to that."

Mr Richards said he would not speculate on the prospects of the two remaining missing people.

"This is an active operation where a group of people are doing their best to try and find two missing people," he said.

"They've done an incredible job by saving these five so far.

While he still had hours of travel ahead, Mr Richards said he was keen to get home.

"I'm very much looking forward to getting on the flight to head back to Australia," he said.

"I hope to be back home some time on Thursday."