Rescuers found five people alive after being trapped in a flooded cave for a week in Laos.
The seven men went missing in a muddy chamber before rain flooded the cave and blocked the entrance.
Laotian and Thai emergency teams reached five of them who were trapped about 300m from the cave’s entrance and are still searching for two others who remain missing.
Bounkham Luanglath from the Laotian team said it was an emotional operation for the rescuers involved.
“I’m still shaking,” he said in a voice message after the discovery. “Our team made it happen.”
Rescuers said the cave had extremely narrow passages, with some chambers measuring only 50 centimetres wide.
Updates on the condition of the five villagers have not been released.
Photo: Dynamic image of a caver navigating a rocky subterranean world with headlamp illumination by K is available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons Licence. This image has been cropped.
