Ani international operation to rescue a group of villagers from a cave found five of the seven men missing alive on Wednesday. However, organizers warned that extreme challenges they would have to overcome to safely bring them to the surface meant the real work had yet to start. Photo by Metta Tham Kalasin Rescue/EPA
May 27 (UPI) -- Five of seven men trapped in a cave in a remote area of Laos for more than a week were found alive on Wednesday following an international rescue operation involving more than 100 volunteer personnel.
The Laotian group Rescue Volunteer for People said the five, all men, were safe and well and that the search for the two remaining missing people would continue.
However, rescuers warned that the five people, who became trapped a quarter of a mile down by landslides and flooding after entering the cave system on May 20, remain stuck and have yet to be brought to the surface.
"The extraction is still ahead and it ain't going to be easy," said Finnish cave rescue diver Mikko Paasi, one of several specialists and organizations involved who also took part in the Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018 when a Thai teen soccer team and their coach were trapped underground for more than two weeks.
