Laos dam collapse: 26 dead, many missing

Rescuers recovered 26 bodies and hundreds remain missing after a dam collapse swamped several villages in southern Laos, as survivors on Wednesday questioned why they got little warning of the deluge.

Two South Korean contractors said they reported damage at least a day before parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam gave way on Monday and unleashed a wall of water.

A Thai consular official, Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief effort in Attapeu province told AFP that by Wednesday late afternoon 26 bodies had been recovered.

“Seventeen others are injured and in hospital,” he said, adding roof-level floodwater was hampering rescue efforts in a remote area of the country.

In an update on Wednesday afternoon state-run Laos News Agency said hundreds of people remained unaccounted for, with at least 50 missing from the village of Ban Mai alone.

Footage on Laos television showed people huddled on roofs awaiting rescue as muddy water swirled menacingly just below them, with the army and local volunteers leading the relief effort.

Laos, poor but blessed with abundant natural resources, aims to become the “Battery of Asia” allowing dozens of foreignfunded dam projects across its network of rivers.

But fears over the environmental impact of the projects, which export most of their electricity to neighbouring Thailand and China, go virtually unvoiced inside the tightly controlled communist country. AFP

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