A Rescue Crew Of 18 Divers Begin An Operation To Release 12 Students And A Football Coach From A Cave
- An operation to release 12 school boys and a football coach from a flooded cave has begun.
- A crew of 13 foreigners and 5 Thai rescuers started the operation at around 10 am on Sunday.
- The football squad is trapped in the cave since June 23 when their trek went completely wrong.
- The rescue is believed to free all thirteen trapped people within two days.
A rescue operation to release 12 schoolboys and their football coach, who have been trapped inside of a cave in Thailand, has started. The first child will be rescued by Sunday night while the whole rescue is expected to take around two days.
The rescue commander announced the team of 18 international divers started their 'extremely dangerous operation' at 10 am after the anxious family members of the trapped were informed.
The crew of 13 foreign and five Thai Navy SEALs will extricate the boys one at a time through the flooded tunnels. The rescue mission chief Narongsak Osottanakorn told the rescue might take two to three days to release all 13 people off the tunnel. Narongsak said,
Today is D-Day. We are 100% ready. There's a storm coming and if we wait for the rains, conditions won't be as perfect as they are now.
He continued,
We sent in a medic yesterday, they are mentally and physically ready; we'll never be as ready as we are today. We ask everyone to pray and cheer for our success
Two divers will accompany a boy through the perilous 4km journey of murky waters. The rescuers are understood to be able to walk most of the path after they drained the water by 1 foot last night.
The youngsters will be taken to the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital, which is at 57km from the cave, straight after taking out of the tunnel.
Twelve boys of ages between 11 and 16 and their 25-year-old coach were trapped under the Tham Luang cave on June 23 after a sudden rain flood blocked the exit. Over 1,000 people and at least seven foreign governments searched for the missing group for days before a pair of British divers found all 13 members alive and in stable health.
A national park ranger informed the officials after he found their shoes and bikes near the entrance to the cave. The Thai Navy Seals swam into the cave before finding them through the murky cave.
The rescued team include: football coach Ekkapol Chantawong, 25, Mongkol Boonpium, 13, Nattawoot Thakamsai, 14, Pipat Phothai, 15, Adul Samon, 14, Ekkarat Wongsookchan, 14, Panumart Saengdee, Chanin Wiboonroongrueng, 11, Somphong Jaiwong, 13, Phornchild Kamluang, 16, Duangphet Promthep, and Prachuk Sutham, 14.