Risky Thai cave rescue for soccer team could take weeks, months

Rescuers braced for a long and difficult evacuation for 13 members of a Thai youth football team found alive in a cave nine days after they went missing, as food and medicine was shuttled to them though muddy waters on Tuesday.

The 12 young boys and their football coach were discovered rake thin and hungry on a mound of mud surrounded by water late Monday, ending the agonizing search that captivated a nation.

But the focus quickly shifted to the tricky task of how to evacuate them safely from the still-flooded caverns.

Much-needed food and medical supplies — including high-calorie gels and paracetamol — reached them Tuesday as rescuers prepared for a prolonged extraction operation.

The Thai military said it is providing months’ worth of food and diving lessons to the boys to help them out of the waterlogged Tham Luang network in the country’s monsoon-drenched north.

“(We will) prepare to send additional food to be sustained for at least four months and train all 13 to dive while continuing to drain the water,” Navy Captain Anand Surawan said.

He refused to say how long they might be trapped, but experts said it could take weeks or even months.

The astonishing rescue sparked jubilation across the country after the country mounted a massive and gruelling operation beset by heavy downpours and fast-moving floodwaters.

“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 boys were discovered at about 10:00 pm Monday by British divers some 400 metres (1,300 feet) from where they were believed to be stranded several kilometres inside the cave.

In the video, posted on the Thai Navy SEAL Facebook page, one of the boys asks the rescuers to “go outside”.

In response the British diver says: “No, no not today… many, many people are coming… we are the first,” in reference to the vast and complex rescue operation that has taken over the mountainside.

‘Unimaginable’ rescue 

The harrowing task of getting the boys out is complicated by the fact that they are in a weak state and are not experienced divers.

The rugged and wet kilometres-long course toward the entrance take a healthy SEAL diver six hours.

If diving proves impossible, there is an outside chance they can be drilled out or wait for waters to recede and walk out on foot.

But the clock is ticking with heavy rains forecast to return this week as the monsoon season bites deeper.

The priority is to get the team’s strength up before they start the tricky journey out, officials said, reluctant to offer a concrete timeline.

Relatives — and much of Thailand — exploded with relief and jubilation on getting the news the team were alive and safe.

“I’m so relieved, though I still don’t have the chance to see him… I want to tell him I’m still here waiting,” Kieng Khamleu, said of her son Pornchai Khamleung inside the cave.

Another parent said he could hardly believe the good news.

“It’s unimaginable. I’ve been waiting for 10 days, I never imagined this day would come,” the father of one of the boys said.

Diving teams prepared telephone lines to lay in the cave to set up phone calls to the boys, the governor said.

The “Wild Boar” team became trapped on June 23 after heavy rains blocked the cave’s main entrance.

Rescuers found their bicycles, football boots and backpack near the cave’s opening, and spotted handprints and footprint further in — leading them to the spot they were eventually found.

Tham Luang cave is one of Thailand’s longest, winding 10 kilometers (six miles) and is also one of the toughest to navigate — especially in the wet months.

A sign outside the entrance warns visitors not to enter during the rainy season from July to November.  /vvp