A team of specialist ‌divers have pulled one man from a flooded cave in central Laos as four others remain trapped and two are still missing.

Video footage showed rescuers guiding a mud-smeared man wearing a headlamp from the tight cave entrance.

Divers were heard screaming “they are coming out” during a phone interview with CNN.

Seven Lao citizens had entered the cave in Xaisomboun province to prospect for gold but their exit was blocked, leaving them trapped for more than a week.

It took about 37 minutes to ​bring the man through the passages to safety, the rescue teams said.

“The first one is out. Safe and sound!!!” wrote Manat Artmongkron, a rescue technician for Saithan Saphanboon Foundation, a Thai rescue group, in a Facebook post.

Rescuers said they had stopped operations for the night as they evaluated the remaining four people they had found, and planned to resume the search for the final two.

Rescuers working to free the man who they say is ‘safe and sound’. Photo: AAP

A team of volunteers from neighbouring Thailand joined the rescue ⁠efforts on Sunday and further reinforcements were due ‌to arrive ​on Friday, including Australia’s Josh Richards.

The additions have been flown in to the remote site by helicopter, avoiding the mountain roads.

Kengkard Bongkawong, ​a Thai cave ‌diver involved in the mission, said in a Facebook post on Friday that the health ​of the survivors was deteriorating as they awaited rescue.

“The rescue operation is extremely challenging, as it involves moving them through narrow passages stretching hundreds of metres and requiring underwater diving,” ​he ​said.

Footage taken on Thursday by Norrased ​Palasing, another Thai volunteer, showed survivors sitting on a ‌ledge deep in the cave and crying with relief.

Reuters was able to confirm the location from corroborating social media footage showing two divers in the video both went into the cave for the rescue.

The breakthrough late on Friday night local time proves it is possible to save the survivors, and could pave the way for more to be pulled out in coming days.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, a central figure in the search and rescue effort, is also a veteran of the famous 2018 Thai cave rescue that saved 12 boys and their football coach.

Paasi told Nine Entertainment that saving the Lao men’s lives was more complex than in Thailand because of the extreme and unrelenting claustrophobia.