Police say 11 children ages one to 15 were rescued in the US state of New Mexico after officers raided a dilapidated compound occupied by armed men of "extremist" belief. Two men were arrested after police found them and the children in what one officer called "the saddest living conditions and poverty I have seen," as part of the operation connected to a months-long search for an abducted three-year-old, according to New Mexico's Taos County sheriff's office.

Police said the children, aged one to 15, had no shoes, were wearing rags and "looked like Third World refugees". Five adults were found at the scene, including two heavily armed men. Police searched the site after receiving a message from a third party that read: "We are starving and need food and water."