Thailand cave rescue: Football team will learn diving to come out safely, but rescue may take months

The 12 boys and their football coach, found alive in a flooded Thai cave after nine days, will be given diving lessons to facilitate their rescue, according to the country's army. The trapped group will also be supplied with four months’ worth of food, as focus shifted to the tricky task of evacuating the group from the complex underground system.

The boys aged between 11 and 16, were discovered with their 25-year-old coach late Monday, huddled on a ledge deep inside a flooded cave nine days after they became trapped in a pitch black cave hemmed by rising floodwaters.

Much-needed food and medical supplies – including high-calorie gels and paracetamol – reached them Tuesday as rescuers prepared for the possibility that they may be there for some time.

Medical teams will continue to monitor the boys' health while they are trapped inside the cave.

The boys were found late Monday by British divers, with footage showing them as visibly weak and huddled on a mud mound deep inside the cave. The stranded footballers will be taught how to dive as waiting for the water to recede may delay rescue operations by weeks. 

The governor of the Chiang Rai province, Narongsak Osottanakorn, spoke to reporters on Monday night, confirming the safety of the boys and their coach.

He stated that the rescue team found the Pattaya Beach to be flooded. 300 to 400 meters ahead, they located the group.

However, Governor Osottanakorn stated that the mission was not over yet and that extraction of the boys would be a difficult process. He also mentioned that a medical team was needed to assess their health.

"We will drain all water out from the cave then we will take all 13 people out of the cave. We are now planning how to send (a) nurse and doctor inside the cave to check their health and movement. We will work all night," Osottanakorn said.

“We called this mission impossible because it rained every day... but with our determination and equipment we fought nature,” Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osottanakorn said Tuesday.

“The doctor advised that we should provide several kinds of medicine to prevent infection and other illness,” adding that medics had reached the young footballers.

The boys were found late Monday by British divers, with footage showing them huddled on a mud mound deep inside the cave.

Divers struggled through narrow passages and murky waters to discover the boys late on Monday night on an elevated rock about 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) from the mouth of the cave.

A video shot by rescuers in flickering torchlight revealed boys clad in shorts and red and blue shirts sitting or standing on the rock above an expanse of water.

"How many of you are there - 13? Brilliant," a member of the multinational rescue team, speaking in English, tells the boys. "You have been here 10 days. You are very strong."

"Thank you," one of the boys says. 

One of the boys asks when they will get out of the cave, to which the rescuer answers: "Not today. You have to dive."

Two British divers, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, were first to reach the boys, having had strong experience in cave rescues, according to Bill Whitehouse, the vice chairman of the British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC).

They found the group along with a team of Thai navy SEAL divers.

Rescuers had been focusing on an elevated mound, which cavers have named "Pattaya Beach", in the cave complex's third chamber, knowing that it could have provided the boys with a refuge when rains flooded the cave.

"The SEALs reported that ... they reached Pattaya Beach which was flooded. So they went 400 metres further where we found the 13 ... who were safe," Narongsak told the cheering group of reporters.

JUBILATION

The boys survival was greeted with jubilation nationwide by Thais who have followed every twist of the harrowing story.

Relatives of the boys, who have been at a shelter near the cave hoping for a breakthrough, were seen cheering, smiling and receiving calls after being given the news. Rescuers shook hands and congratulated each other as occasional cheers broke out.

Aged between 11 and 16, the boys went missing with the 25-year-old after soccer practice on June 23 after they set out to explore the Tham Luang cave complex in a forest park near Thailand's northern border with Myanmar.

Rescuers now have to decide how best to get the group out in their weakened condition. They have been given energy gels to sustain them while a plan is worked out to bring them to safety.
Options considered included waiting until water levels subsided, or teaching the group to use diving gear to navigate the flooded cave.

"If you ask me now while we are still assessing all sides then I don't think they will be home soon," Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters.

The group's health was assessed overnight by medical teams which will continue to check the health of the group on Monday, said Narongsak, explaining that the boys had sustained light injuries.

"We categorized their health condition as red, yellow or green, red being the most severe injuries, yellow being mild and green being light. Yesterday, unofficially, we assessed that most are in the green category," said Narongsak.

Narongsak said rescue workers would now focus on the "rescue" phase and then a handover to medical teams waiting outside the cave.

(With Reuters and ANI inputs)