Emotional scenes unfolded outside a flooded cave in Laos as four villagers, stranded for nearly 10 days, were safely evacuated and reunited with their families.
Rescue teams from Laos, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, France, and Australia worked together to rescue the villagers, who were trapped while searching for valuable minerals.
The first villager was evacuated on Friday, with the operation taking nearly 30 minutes to complete.
Five more villagers were found alive on Wednesday, and the remaining two are still missing.
The rescuers, who included teams that participated in the 2018 Thai cave rescue, delivered food and water to the trapped villagers before guiding them to safety.
