Ninth boy rescued from Thai cave — navy sources

A ninth boy was rescued from a flooded Thai cave on Tuesday, officials said, as elite divers raced to extract the remaining members of a young football team who became trapped 18 days ago.

Three more boys and their 25-year-old coach were still inside the cave but authorities were confident of getting them all out by Tuesday evening via a claustrophobic network of tunnels that in some places were completely filled with water.

“(They) will be extracted today,” rescue chief Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters on Tuesday morning.

A few hours later an ambulance was seen leaving the cave site in a mountainous region of northern Thailand, and two sources told AFP a ninth boy was safe.

“The ninth boy is out,” a police source said, requesting anonymity, while a Thai Navy source confirmed the boy “has been transferred from the cave entrance to the field hospital.”

The hoped-for final chapter in an ordeal that has gripped the world comes after elite foreign divers and Thai Navy SEALs escorted eight members of the “Wild Boars” football team out on Sunday and Monday.

The boys, aged from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach, ventured into the Tham Luang cave on June 23 after football practice and got caught deep inside when heavy rains caused flooding that trapped them on a muddy ledge.

The emergence of the second batch of four boys on Monday evening was greeted with a simple “Hooyah” by the SEAL team on their Facebook page, an exclamation that lit up Thai social media, while positive medical reports on the rescued group further fuelled the sense of joy.

Earlier, officials told reporters that “all eight are in good health, no fever… everyone is in a good mental state,” Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, permanent secretary of the public health ministry, said at Chiang Rai hospital where the boys were recuperating.

However the boys — aged between 12 and 16 — will remain in quarantine until doctors were sure they had not contracted any infections from inside the cave.

Experts warned that drinking contaminated water or otherwise being exposed to bird or bat droppings in the cave could lead to dangerous infections.

But the early signs were promising, with X-rays and blood tests showing just two had signs of pneumonia and that they were in a “normal state” after taking antibiotics, Jedsada said.

Some had even asked for “bread and chocolate spread”, he added.

The ups and downs of the rescue bid have entranced Thailand and also fixated a global audience, drawing support from celebrities as varied as US President Donald Trump, football star Lionel Messi and tech guru Elon Musk.

The boys and their coach spent nine harrowing days trapped in darkness until two British divers found them.

Authorities then struggled to devise a safe plan to get them out, mulling ideas such as drilling holes into the mountain or waiting months until monsoon rains ended and they could walk out.

But with oxygen levels in their chamber falling to dangerous levels and complete flooding of the cave system possible, rescuers decided on the least-worst option of having divers escort them out through the extremely narrow and water-filled tunnels.

Final five 

Following a similar pattern as the previous two days, the divers ventured back into the cave at 10:00am (0700 GMT) on Tuesday, Narongsak told reporters.

However, unlike Sunday and Monday when only four were brought out each day due to logistical constraints, rescuers would try to extract all of the remaining five in one operation, Narongsak said.

A doctor and three SEALS who had stayed with the footballers would also come out on Tuesday, he added.

Sunday and Monday’s rescue missions took between nine and 11 hours.

“Today we hope to be faster,” Narongsak said, although the Navy SEALs later posted that it could in fact take longer.

The escape route is challenge for even experienced divers. The boys have no previous diving experience so the rescuers have been training them how to use a mask and breathe underwater via an oxygen tank.

One fear has been that they may panic while trying to swim underwater, even with a diver escorting them.

Although there have been no major reported complications during the initial rescues, the death of a former Thai Navy SEAL diver who ran out of oxygen in a flooded area of the cave on Friday underscored the dangers of the journey.

Meanwhile, family and friends of the stricken group continued to dream of being reunited.

“I want him to be healthy and come back to study quickly,” Phansa Namyee, classmate of 16-year-old footballer Night said.

“I want to go play with them… take him to some restaurants and spend time together.”   /vvp