The five are reported to be in good health. A video released by a Thai rescue team shows divers discovering the group on a rock ledge surrounded by water.
"I'm still shaking. Our team succeeded," rescue worker Bounkham Luanglath said in a voice message to the AP news agency.
The group has been trapped in the flooded cave for over a week. They entered the cave system to search for gold, but became trapped when sudden torrential rains flooded the cave entrance.
International specialists have been called in to participate in the rescue effort.
"What a feeling!" wrote Finnish specialist rescue diver Mikko Paasi on Instagram after the five were found and continued:
“But we still have to get them out, and it won’t be easy.”
Rescue workers are forced to navigate "hundreds of meters of constant obstacles, floodwater, landslide risk and a high risk of polluted air quality" in the cave, Paasi said earlier Wednesday.
