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By AFP
APPOINTMENT: The rescue of a small boy, terrified and starving after days without food, was captured in a viral video showing the surviving child of a dam collapse in southern Laos Images of Thai volunteers rescuing 14 people, including the baby, were widely circulated online as it came out on Friday as an increasingly international humanitarian mission struggles to save lives in disaster
The group of survivors was blocked by floods after fleeing a hill on Monday as the Xe-Namnoy Dam broke under heavy rain, leaving several villages devastated by sudden floods. , which have waded for several kilometers through tumultuous waters containing uprooted trees and debris, are fresh from efforts to release a football team of youth trapped in a cave in the north of their country.
now come to help neighboring Laos, who is ill-equipped to deal with disasters of this magnitude.
"The boy is four months old, he has not had a fever but he was crying, maybe because of the cold weather," Kengkard Bongkawong, one of the north-based rescuers, told AFP. -est from Thailand
"The baby was crying and looked terrified.In fact, they were (still) terrified by the water that was rushing."
The video had been watched close to a half a million times only a few hours after it was posted online on Friday.
Earlier this week, 27 corpses were recovered The governor of Attapeu province, Leth Xiayaphone, revised down the number of casualties to five, stating on Friday that the largest number previously given was " unconfirmed information "
. In Laos, they are not subject to international control and have blocked access to foreign media, which complicates efforts to establish the exact number of victims in a remote region.
The mystery of the death toll increased Friday with a Ban Mai resident. According to AFP, eight people are presumed to have died alone in his village as the water rushed there.
"Some were crushed by houses, others fell into the water when their boats capsized", Phuvieng Kump Rasong, 54, told AFP testimonies of his relatives, relatives and other survivors of the village.
"But their bodies were not found. This is a very difficult job for rescuers, because of the water level. "
It is just a dozen villages battered by the floods.
The dam disaster also raised serious questions about the big gamble of Laos.
Poor but rich in natural resources Laos has built or plans to build dozens of dams on its watercourses, mainly to send electricity to its energy – hungry neighbors
. for damaging a previously untouched ecosystem and rights activists for the forced relocation of thousands of villagers who receive little compensation or rewards for hydropower plans.
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