Thai rescue teams arrange water pumping system at the entrance to a flooded cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. (Royal Thai Navy via AP/File)
In a major breakthrough, four boys of the soccer team which had been trapped inside the cave have been rescued Sunday from the flooded cave, a senior member of the rescue team said. The kids were immediately given medical assistance. “They are currently at the field hospital near the cave, we are giving them a physical examination,” said Tossathep Boonthong, chief of Chiang Rai’s health department and part of the rescue team, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The entire rescue operation to remove all 13 from inside the cave could last two to four days, depending on weather and water conditions, said army Maj. Gen. Chalongchai Chaiyakam.
With more than two weeks gone, Thailand authorities have begun the rescue operation for a group of 12 boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped in a flooded cave in northern Chiang Rai province. A former Thai Navy SEAL member died inside the cave on Thursday night due to lack of oxygen. Elon Musk had offered technological help to the Thai govt.
After the successful rescue of four schoolboys, Thai navy SEALs posted on their Facebook page again, saying: "Sweet dreams everyone. Good night. Hooyah."
"It's dangerous to the most experienced divers to go through," said one diver who spoke to Reuters. "It's pretty scary." The cave system, in a limestone mountain range bordering Myanmar in northern Thailand, has proven to be a formidable challenge for the international rescue coalition drawing some of the world's best divers who have volunteered to help in the operation alongside Thai Navy SEALs.
The first, nearly 1 kilometre (0.6 mile) long section from where the boys have been huddling in darkness is believed to be the most difficult, requiring a long dive and crawling through mud and debris, with some crevices barely wide enough for a person.
"The hole is really small, I have to take off my air tank to crawl through it," a 25-year-old Thai Navy SEAL who declined to be named, told Reuters before the rescue attempt. "As I do, I feel the edges of the hole on both my back and chest." (Reuters)
Four boys have been rescued from inside the cave. In an earlier update, it was erroneously mentioned as six, Reuters has issued a correction.
Thai official heading the cave rescue says the operation is going better than expected, he added that the healthiest children have been taken out first, reports AP.
Thai official heading the cave rescue mission said that the next phase of the operation will start in 10-20 hours, reported AP
As many as 90 divers; 50 foreign and 40 Thai, involved in rescue operation to remove all those trapped in the cave - Head of rescue operation
A Royal Thai Police helicopter carrying rescued schoolboys takes off near Tham Luang cave complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand. (Source: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)
One of two ambulances was seen leaving the cave in northern Thailand hours after an operation began to rescue the trapped youth soccer players and their coach, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
"I have received information that six have exited the cave", a senior member of the rescue team told Reuters. A helicopter flew some of the boys to the nearby city of Chiang Rai where they were taken by ambulance to hospital.
"Two kids are out. They are currently at the field hospital near the cave," said Tossathep Boonthong, chief of Chiang Rai's health department and part of the rescue team. "We are giving them a physical examination. They have not been moved to Chiang Rai hospital yet," Tossathep told Reuters.
The first two members of a Thai schoolboy soccer team have been rescued from the flooded cave where they had been trapped for more than two weeks, a local rescue official was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand's elite navy SEAL unit are trying to bring the boys - some as young as 11 and weak swimmers – through narrow, submerged passageways. Bursts of heavy monsoon rain soaked the Tham Luang Cave area in northern Chiang Rai province on Sunday and storms were expected in the coming weeks, increasing the risks in what has been called a "war with water and time" to save the team.
Rescuing them all could take three to four days and depended on the weather, an army commander involved in the mission said. The rescue teams had rehearsed the plan for several days, Narongsak Osottanakorn, head of the rescue mission said, and had managed to drain the water level in the cave considerably, but needed to move fast.
Kobchai Boonyaorana, deputy director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department of the Interior Ministry, told reporters Sunday that the water level in the cave had continued to recede, and that rainfall was less than expected.
But weather forecasters warned heavy rain was on its way, which could flood the area completely. They said there was a 60-per cent chance of moderate to heavy rain on Sunday afternoon, and that heavier rain would continue from Monday to Thursday.
The rescue operation was launched after several days of relatively mild weather, as more than 100 million of litres of water were pumped out of the cave. (AFP)
Rescuer arrives near the cave in northern Thailand Sunday, the Thai authorities are racing to pump out water from the flooded cave before more rains are forecast to hit the northern region. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Thai policemen stand guard near a cave where 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand. (Source: AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
The risky diving operation to bring out the 12 trapped children has started and the first boy is expected to be out of the cave around 9 pm Sunday (10 am ET) at the earliest. Rescuers say it may take 2-4 days for the entire team to reach safety, depending on conditions inside the cave.
The local governor in charge of the rescue says the mission was launched Sunday morning because floodwaters inside the cave are at their lowest level in days and rains forecast to hit the region risk flooding the cave again. (AP)
According to Guardian reports, Thailand is hit by heavy rainfall within one mile around the cave, however, this does not hinder the rescue operations as it continues apace.
The Thai Navy SEAL had shared a picture on Facebook mentioning that they were ready for the rescue operations to help the group of young boys and their coach who are trapped inside the cave with help from an international team.
Elon Musk had wished the 'extremely talented dive team' luck in a tweet which also seems to indicate his involvement in the rescue mission.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop tweeted that an Australian medical specialist has also joined the team of divers involved in rescuing the group of boys trapped in the cave.
The entire rescue operation to get the group of boys out of the cave might take two to four days, depending on the weather and water conditions, said Army General Chalongchai Chaiyakam. The only way to get the group out is by navigating through dark and tight passageways which is filled with muddy water and strong currents, apart from oxygen-depleted air.
Appreciating Thai government's proactiveness and care to rescue the boys trapped in the cave, former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar tweeted out a message.
Rainshowers have soaked the Tham Luang cave area in northern Thailand province for the past 24 hours, as predicted which heightened the risk of the rescue operations. The governor called the rescue mission which began this morning at 10 am (local time) a 'war with water and time' to save the team. The entire operation involves a mammoth response operation with a medical unit, ambulance and helicopter for every boy waiting outside the cave.
Governor Narongsak on Sunday morning announced that 'today is the D-day' for the operations to rescue the group of boys to begin. Nearly 13 foreign and five Thai divers are taking part in the rescue operations with two divers accompanying each boy during extraction. The operation began at 10 am and the governor predicted it should take at least 11 hours.
This map of the Thailand cave where the group of boys and their soccer coach are stuck shows the difficulty in reaching them and the problems faced by the boys as well as the divers who are trying to get through. (Source: AP)
Authorities have asked the media to cordon off the area around the entrance of the cave. 12 boys, all between the ages of 11-16 along with their soccer coach have been trapped for two weeks.
According to an AP report, there are speculations about a rescue mission happening anytime soon.
Read more | Officials clear media as cave rescue seems imminent
The death on Friday of a former Thai navy SEAL, Saman Gunan, underscored the risks of making the underwater journey. The diver, the first fatality of the rescue effort, was working in a volunteer capacity and died on a mission to place oxygen canisters along the route to where the boys and others are sheltered.
Rescuers are also pursuing other options to extract the boys, hoping that finding a shaft or drilling into the mountain in which the cave is located will lead them to a sort of backdoor entrance, an AP report said.
Rescuers have been unable to extend a hose pumping oxygen all the way to where the boys are, but have brought them some oxygen tanks, news agency AP reported.
The boys sent handwritten notes to their families that were made public Saturday. They sounded calm and reassuring in the notes which were sent out with divers who made an 11-hour, back-and-forth journey to act as postmen. One of the boys, identified as Tun, wrote: ``Mom and Dad, please don't worry, I am fine. I've told Yod to get ready to take me out for fried chicken. With love.''
More than 100 exploratory holes have been bored -- some shallow, but the longest 400 metres deep -- into the mountainside in an attempt to open a second evacuation route and avoid forcing the boys into a dangerous dive through submerged tunnels.
An update Saturday from the Thai navy said three navy SEALs were with the boys and their coach, one a doctor. The 13 are having health evaluations and rehabilitation, and being taught diving skills. Food, electrolyte-drinks, drinking water, medicines, and oxygen canisters have been delivered to them, the navy said.
Rescuers on the hill who were seeking alternative routes down into the cave, an accident occurred on Saturday night: a vehicle skidded off a dirt track, seriously injuring the driver and a passenger and harming four other volunteers, authorities said.
The best window for a rescue could come in the next three or four days, the leader of the rescue effort said on Saturday.
A heavy rain shower hit northern Thailand late on Saturday, worsening conditions at the cave where rescuers were waging a "war with water and time" to save 12 trapped boys and their soccer coach, with a rescue possible within days.
The rain could potentially set back progress made over the last week to drain the Tham Luang cave complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai. With oxygen levels dropping and more rainstorms forecast, time is running out on a plan to evacuate them.
Thirteen fully staffed medical teams stand ready round the clock outside a cave in Thailand -- each with its own helicopter and ambulance. With oxygen levels dropping and rainstorms forecast, time is running out on a plan to reach the boys - since the young boys won't be able to make a dive through narrow, waterlogged passageways that would challenge experienced cavers.
Medical staff involved in the mission told Reuters their first assessments will focus on the boy's breathing, signs of hypothermia and an airborne lung infection known as 'cave disease' which is caused by bat and bird droppings and can be fatal if it is untreated and spreads to other parts of the body.
Rescuers workers have reportedly used an Israeli technology to locate them. The Israeli rescuers were among the first to join this frantic mission and used state-of-the-art search and rescue technology to aid their mission, nocamels.com reported.
Israeli company Maxtech Networks CEO Uzi Hanuni told the Times of Israel that their system provides voice, data and video link to the boys who were located earlier this week. Hanuni adds that around 19 devices with a battery backup of about 10 hours’ use at a time were used to complete a link to the boys in the cave. Read more
Kamolchai Kotcha, an official of the forest park where the cave complex is located said, "Everything is a race against time." His team would camp out on the hill to try and finish its work before the rain came, he said.
The rescue operation has grabbed the interest of other countries including Australia, Britain, China, Japan and the United States, who are offering help.
"It's only natural for us to offer our help," Meir Schlomo, Israel's ambassador to Thailand, waqs quoted as sayying by Reuters.
Family members pray near a cave on Saturday where the 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand. The coach apologised to the parents in the first letter he and the team have sent out through divers, in which the boys say they're doing well and missing their families. (Source: AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
The body of Saman Gunan, a former Thai navy SEAL who died during an overnight mission, is carried during a repatriation and religious rites ceremony at Chiang Rai Airport in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand on Friday. The Thai navy diver working as part of the effort to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave died Friday from lack of oxygen, underscoring risks of extracting the team. (Source: AP Photo)
The children wrote that they were doing well despite the cold and made plans of what they would do once they got out of the cave, (as per a report by the Associated Press). Following are a few letters that the children wrote to their families:
One boy wrote: "I'm doing fine, but the air is a little cold, but don't worry. Although, don't forget to set up my birthday party.''
Another, identified as Tun, wrote: "Mom and Dad, please don't worry, I am fine. I've told Yod to get ready to take me out for fried chicken. With love.'' The name reference could be of a waiting relative.
A boy named Mick wrote: "Don't be worried, I miss everyone. Grandpa, Uncle, Mom, Dad and siblings, I love you all. I'm happy being here inside, the navy SEALS have taken good care. Love you all."
Thai authorities are racing to pump out water from the flooded cave before more rains hit the northern region. (Source: AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
The coach of the young football team Ekapol Chanthawong wrote: "To the parents of all the kids, right now the kids are all fine, the crew are taking good care. I promise I will care for the kids as best as possible. I want to say thanks for all the support and I want to apologize to the parents."
The team of Thai Navy SEAL divers who made contact with the boys their coach trapped in a cave since June 23, took food and other medical supplies for them and returned with messages from the children for their awaiting families.
More than 100 chimneys are being drilled into the mountainside in a frantic bid to reach the young football team which has been trapped in a cave complex, the head of the rescue mission said today.
The unprecedented rescue effort is attempting to establish new ways to extract the boys from above, if the underground chambers flood and it is deemed too risky to evacuate the team by diving out through the submerged passageways. (AFP)
Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Thai Ambassador to India, thanked Delhi for offering its "technical expertise" to Bangkok.
On July 2, the Embassy of India in Bangkok wrote to Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, conveying readiness to offer technical expertise in the rescue of 12 young footballers and their coach in a flooded cave in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai city.
"The Embassy further has the honour to convey that India would be ready to offer technical expertise in the ongoing rescue efforts of the aforesaid young footballers and their coach, through an Indian company M/s Kirloskar Brothers Limited, which has its subsidiary in Thailand," the Embassy of India in Bangkok wrote to Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As the only way out of the cave at this time would be for the boys to dive through the same complicated route of narrow passageways that their rescuers entered. Cave rescue experts have said it could be safest to simply supply the boys where they are for now, and wait for the water to go down either naturally or by pumping. That could take months, however, given that Thailand's rainy season typically lasts through October. (AP)
The Thai governor in charge of rescuing 12 boys and their soccer coach from a cave says the cooperating weather and falling water levels over the last few days have created conditions for extraction that won't continue if it rains again. Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn says authorities are waiting for two big groups of volunteer divers to arrive later Saturday and Sunday, after which they'll be ready to begin the operation of bringing them out.
He says: "The plan that I've held on to from the beginning is that we have to bring the kids out and the determining factor of this plan is to have as little water as possible." He says floodwaters have been drained as much as possible, 'but if it rains and adds to it again, we don't know what other risk factors we will have to face.' He also warned about higher carbon dioxide levels in the cave.
The official handle of Football Association of Thailand posted an image of the FIFA President's letter to the Thai President expressing their concern for the boys and to rescue them safely. The FIFA President also invited the Wild Boars team over to Moscow to watch the World Cup Final if they are rescued in time before the scheduled match.
"To the parents of all the kids, right now the kids are all fine, the crew are taking good care. I promise I will care for the kids as best as possible. I want to say thanks for all the support and I want to apologize to the parents," wrote 25-year-old Ekapol Chanthawong, the coach of the Wild Boars soccer team. Most children scribbled letters on pages from a notebook struck messages of love for parents and telling them not to worry, as reported by AP.
In the first letter that reached the anxious parents of the boys trapped inside the cave in Thailand, the 25-year-old coach has apologized to them. The boys have also written letters and said that they are doing okay, telling their respective parents not to worry. The only way to reach them for the divers was by navigating dark and tight passageways filled with muddy water and strong currents and in the oxygen-depleted air.
Heavy rainfall had been predicted for the weekend and the governor said further rainfall could be credibly damaging to the rescue mission efforts. The head of the rescue mission said: "The critical point is when it rains again. There is limited time.” Meanwhile, if the boys successfully make it out in time, the Fifa president has invited them to be guests at the World Cup final in Moscow.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that engineers from his firms – SpaceX and The Boring Company – were heading to Thailand to see if they could assist the rescue. The firms have “advance ground penetrating radar” that is “pretty good at digging holes” or technology that could “create an air tunnel underwater” for the children to traverse, Musk said earlier. A spokesman told the BBC: “We are speaking with the Thai government to see how we can help, and we are sending SpaceX/Boring Company people from the US to Thailand today to offer support on the ground.
According to AP, SEAL commander Rear Adm. Arpakorn Yookongkaew separately explained the ethic driving their mission and why Samarn's death would not deter them from their course. "We have been trained to always be dealing with risks," he said. "Therefore, whether it's sickness or death, they are things that we are always facing because that's how we're trained. I want to confirm that we have never lost morale, and are still in high spirits. We will not let our fallen brother die in vain."
Samarn Kunan, a former Thai Navy SEAL member who was a part of the team of divers, died inside the cave on Thursday night due to lack of oxygen, raising concerns about the 12 school boys and their 25-year-old coach who have been trapped in the flooded caves for almost two weeks now. Kunan died after entering the cave to lay oxygen tanks along a potential exit route, according to AP reports.
Anxious parents of the trapped boys' have written them letters which were delivered by the divers carrying suppliers 3.2 km inside the cave. The boys have not moved from the ledge that has been sheltering them for nearly two weeks. A makeshift volunteer camp consisting of medical and military rescue workers has also sprung around the cave.
On 4 July 2018, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, has disclosed that His Majesty the King has issued a message of appreciation, commendation, and encouragement to the Thai and foreign teams who have worked tirelessly together to locate and rescue the Moo Pa (Wild Boar) Academy Football Club trapped inside the Tham Luang caves in Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park, Chiang Rai Province since 23 June 2018. Further to this, His Majesty the King has graciously bestowed His well wishes for the successful outcome of all operations concerned with this mission.
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, meanwhile, said that he was “pleased and greatly relieved” that the boys were located.