Five villagers found alive after more than a week in a flooded cave in Laos; two still missing

Seven villagers entered a cave in Xaisomboun province's Longcheng district, roughly 120 kilometers north of the capital Vientiane, on May 19, according to Lao and Thai rescue teams. Heavy rain triggered flash flooding that blocked the cave's exit and trapped them inside. Rescue Volunteer for People, a Lao organization working closely with local authorities, confirmed Wednesday that five people had been found safe and alive, while two remain missing.

The cave is in a rugged, remote area accessible only by a steep hike of roughly 4 kilometers on foot, according to the Associated Press. The entrance is steep and rocky and barely wide enough for one person at a time to pass through. To reach the survivors, rescuers navigated a 340-meter tunnel, parts of which are pitch-black and partially flooded, with some sections as narrow as roughly 23 inches, CNN reported. One rescuer said he had to remove his equipment to squeeze through a section of the passage.

Video footage posted by Thai rescuers and taken by Finnish diver Mikko Paasi showed the moment divers reached the five survivors, who were sitting on a rock surrounded by floodwater, each wearing a headlamp. The villagers told rescuers they were not ill but felt weak and very hungry, according to CNN. Paasi wrote on Instagram that the survivors were "all healthy and in good spirits," but described finding them as "only a brief relief," noting that extraction remained ahead and "ain't going to be easy."