Five villagers found alive in flooded Laos cave

Rescuers in Laos located five of the seven villagers trapped inside a flooded cave on Wednesday, finding the group alive after more than a week underground.

(CNN)- Rescuers in Laos located five of the seven villagers trapped inside a flooded cave on Wednesday, finding the group alive after more than a week underground.

Officials say the rescue effort is now shifting toward safely extracting the survivors while crews continue searching for two additional missing villagers.

“So next slide I take them one by one,” one rescuer said during preparations for the operation.

The villagers reportedly entered the cave searching for gold before heavy rain caused flash flooding that blocked the exit.

Specialist cave divers were brought in to help navigate the dangerous underground system.

“There’s no maps of this place,” said Mikko Paasi, an instructor trainer with Tech Dive Asia. “Diving is so difficult with restrictions where you can’t move, turn around. The visibility is zero.”

Rescue crews also faced toxic hydrogen sulfide gas inside the cave and complications while attempting to deploy equipment to pump fresh air underground.

Support teams worked throughout the operation to remove water from the cave system in hopes of speeding up the rescue and potentially lowering water levels enough for the survivors to crawl out safely.

The five villagers were eventually found deep underground in the highest dry chamber rescuers could locate.

“There’s a terminal chamber,” Paasi explained. “It has an elevated dry section, it’s quite high, so there’s gas to breathe for a few days at least.”

Rescuers hoped to begin extraction efforts Thursday while continuing the search for the remaining two missing villagers.