Mexican authorities rescued two journalists Friday who had been stranded for nearly three days among feuding militants after their caravan of rights activists was caught in a deadly ambush earlier in the week.

Photographer David Cilia, who was shot in the attack, and reporter Erika Ramirez were escorted by police out of a remote area in the state of Oaxaca, the scene of a violent dispute between rival political factions.

Cilia described how the two reporters and two other caravan members took refuge in the brush, and spent days listening to constant gunfire, not knowing whether the gunmen would hunt them down.

"There in the brush, because they kept firing, we had to go deeper into the woods," Cilia said in an interview posted on the website of his magazine, Contralinea. "We heard the gunshots getting closer."

After fleeing the initial assault, they knew fellow members of their convoy were still in the bullet-ridden vehicles, but gunfire prevented them from going to their aid. They did not know that a Finnish rights observer and a Mexican activist shot in the initial attack Tuesday were probably already dead.

"One of the fellows tried to go back to help. He said 'I have to help those people back there,' but at the slightest movement, when he moved the bushes, they started shooting in his direction," Cilia said.

"We thought the authorities would act immediately," Cilia said. But with no warm clothing or food, and with a leg wound that soaked Cilia's pants with blood and attracted insects, they spent the next two nights waiting for help. "During the whole time we were there, the gunshots did not stop."

Finally, the journalists were located early Friday and taken to the nearby town of Juxtlahuaca, where they were in stable condition and were being treated for injuries and dehydration.

Finland demands investigation

The rescue took place near the remote town of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca.

The two activists killed in the Tuesday attack were Finnish human rights worker Jyri Jaakkola and Mexican political activist Beatriz Carino Trujillo.

Jaakkola was a member of a Finnish civil rights group, Uusi Tuuli (New Wind).

In Helsinki on Friday, Finnish Foreign Ministry officials said Jaakkola's visit to Mexico was partly connected to a development project involving the Uusi Tuuli group, which had received ministry funding to help improve local aboriginals’ food production and self-sufficiency. The Finnish government said Friday that it has demanded that Mexico conduct a thorough investigation of Jaakkola's death and that those responsible be brought to justice.

The caravan was in the area to document human rights abuses against members of the Triqui indigenous group.

Participants said five Europeans took part in the convoy of 27 people. Cars were draped with banners declaring that media and international observers were on board. Aside from Jaakkola and one other Finn, the nationalities of the other Europeans were unclear, but were thought to have included a Belgian and an Italian.