Adisak Wongsukchan, speaking exclusively to CNN from the cave complex, said he was “so happy and appreciative” of the international rescue effort that helped to free his son and the Wild Boars soccer team.
For nearly three weeks, Wonsukchan said he tried to “chip in” in any way he could, focusing his attention on supporting the teams.
Now, Wonsukchan’s main focus is to hug his 14-year-old son, Akarat Wongsuchan, who, along with the rest of his team and coach, is recovering at the hospital in Chiang Rai.
Health officials say the boys will likely to remain in a quarantine for seven days because of their weakened immune systems.
Authorities will likely look for signs of Histoplasmosis, also known as “cave disease.” It’s an infection caused by breathing in spores of a fungus often found in bird and bat droppings, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The first eight boys who were rescued on Sunday and Monday seem to be healthy, officials said.
They’re “free of fever, fit mentally, they can feed themselves and talk normally,” according to Dr. Jesada Chokedamrongsuk, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Health.
The rescue mission was complicated to begin with due to fast-moving shallow water passing through very narrow passages. Then the rain started, and forecasts of more rain threatened to raise water levels and reduce the amount of available air in the cave.
It became clear the boys were likely going to have to dive out. Here’s how it went down:
Three remaining divers and a doctor are now out of the cave, mission commander Narongsak Osotthanakorn said at a press conference moments ago.
Osotthanakorn also said the members of the Thai soccer team are in the hospital will see their family “soon.”
Ekkapol Ake Chantawong, the 25-year-old coach of the Wild Board soccer team, has arrived at the hospital in Chiang Rai, a hospital official tells CNN.
All 12 players and their coach are now in the hospital following a rescue that took more than two weeks.
Former Sgt. Saman Kunan, an ex-SEAL, died on July 6 while working on the mission to free the trapped boys.
The 38-year-old, who was a triathlete, ran out of air while underwater as he returned from delivering oxygen tanks to the cavern where the boys were located.
Kunan’s death hammered home the difficulty of bringing out the group — and may have changed the way rescue teams approached the operation.
Finnish volunteer diver Mikko Paasi, a long-term resident of Thailand, talked to CNN while the rescue mission was still in motion. He said Kunan’s death had changed the mood on the ground and made real for rescuers just how dangerous the mission had become.
One of Kunan’s longtime friends, Sgt. Anuram Kaewchano, told CNN he was shocked to learn the news.
“I can’t believe this happened,” he told CNN by phone. “He was very fit, he exercised every day, and he was a triathlete. Our last trip together was to Malaysia.”
He added that the last time the two spoke, “We talked about the kids — whether they were out yet.”
Ekkapol Ake Chantawong, 25, likely led the 12 boys into the cave nearly three weeks ago.
Today, he was the last one out.
He has been criticized by some for what is perceived to be act of supreme recklessness. However, the town has rallied behind Coach Ake, a former monk and community worker.
Both of his parents died when he was young, essentially orphaning Ake. Like many orphaned children in Thailand, he moved away from his childhood home of Mae Sai to become a Buddhist monk at a monastery in the nearby province of Lum Phun.
He remained in the care of the monastery for much of the next decade.
This selflessness, one of his relatives said, is what helped to keep the children alive during those first nine agonizing days before divers discovered the missing group.
All 12 boys and their soccer coach are free from the cave. Here’s what we know about their identities.
The ninth, tenth and eleventh boys who were rescued from the flooded cave made it to the hospital in Chiang Rai, a hospital official tells CNN.
President Trump, who is en route to Brussels right now, just tweeted about the Thai cave rescue:
The Thai Navy SEALs are asking for support for four more rescue workers who have yet to come out of the cave following the evacuation of 13 members of a soccer team from a cave in northern Thailand.
The post from the Thai Navy SEALs’ Facebook page reads: “Waiting for four more Thai Navy Seals [to come out of the cave] who have been accompanying the kids. Please send your support to them.”
Thai Navy SEALs were still waiting for four divers to come out of the cave complex following the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach.
“All 12 wild boars and the coach have left the cave. all safe. Now waiting to receive 4 divers to come out. Hooyah,” the SEALs said in a post on Facebook Tuesday.
After more than two weeks trapped inside a cave complex in northern Thailand, all 12 boys and their soccer coach have finally been rescued.
The last four members of the youth soccer team and their coach were pulled out of the cave on Tuesday afternoon, the third day of a huge international operation to save them.
Nineteen divers assisted in the operation on Tuesday.
The boys were exploring the caves on June 23 with their coach when they were trapped inside by heavy seasonal rains. After they were found on July 2, officials cautioned it could take some time to get them out, but with heavy rain forecast to hit the region authorities decided to act.
While waiting for the last member of the Wild Boar soccer team, and the team’s coach, to be rescued from the cave complex, the Thai Navy SEALs shared a message of support on their Facebook page.
In the post, the SEALs said: “Tonight, all the ‘Wild Boars’ will be in group again!”
All 12 boys have been rescued from the cave complex in northern Thailand, an eyewitness who is part of the rescue operations told CNN. Their coach still remains inside.
The last three members of the youth soccer team were pulled out of the cave on Tuesday afternoon, the third day of a huge international operation to save them.
The Thai rescue is continuing at a fast pace as an eleventh boy was rescued Tuesday afternoon local time, an eyewitness who is part of the rescue operations told CNN. That leaves rescuers with the task of bringing out only one more boy, and the Wild Boars’ soccer coach, from the cave complex in northern Thailand.
A total of three boys have been pulled out of the cave so far on Tuesday, the third day of rescue operations.
A video shared on Facebook by the wife of Nopparat Kanthawong, the Wild Boars’ head coach (not the one trapped inside the cave in northern Thailand), features a number of previously unseen photos of the team.
The photos are accompanied by a song about forgiveness, winning and losing.
At the Prasitsart School in Mae Sai, friends of Nuttawut Takumsong, one of the Wild Boar soccer team members trapped in the cave complex, told CNN they were looking forward to sharing a big plate of fried chicken, the boy’s favorite, as soon as they were reunited.
The youngest member of the team, 11-year-old Titun, also said he wanted to eat fried chicken when he got out of the cave, in a letter written to his parents.
Chicken being fried and sold on the road side is a common sight in Mae Sai, and is especially popular among the town’s school children.
Photos taken by CNN’s Steve George
A tenth boy has emerged from deep within a cave complex in northern Thailand, a member of the rescue operations stationed at the entrance of the cave told CNN.
His was the second successful rescue Tuesday, the third day of a huge international operation to save the boys and their coach. Two boys and their coach remain trapped in the cave.
One more boy was brought out of the cave complex in northern Thailand on Tuesday, the third day of rescue operations.
The boy is being treated at the medical facility on site, according to a Thai navy official with direct knowledge of the operational details.
Nine of the 12 boys have now been rescued. Three boys and their coach remain in the cave.
The Thai boys, aged between 11 and 16 years old, and their coach, were invited to the World Cup final by FIFA last Friday. But they will “probably still be in insolation,” Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Jessada Chokedamrongsook said in a press conference Sunday. He said they would likely be able to watch on television.
Hundreds of volunteers have been working around the clock — many from all across Thailand — cooking and serving up free food for the rescue workers and assorted media stationed at the command center near the Tham Luang cave complex. It’s an extensive operation with several large outdoor kitchens and supply stations offering sanitary goods, like wet-wipes and soaps.
Last night volunteers cooked up khao pad krapow, a Thai traditional fried rice dish that the boys asked for in hospital.
Narongsuk Keasub, one of the divers helping transport air tanks for the SEAL team, spoke with CNN’s Arwa Damon about the inherent dangers of the rescue mission. He called it “the hardest mission” he’s ever done.
“We could only see our hands (and a) short distance, secondly the stones are razor sharp which is dangerous for our diving, thirdly the passage is very narrow,” said Keasub, who works as a diver for the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
Every step of the extraction is risky. I’m quite emotional as a father – everybody has this feeling because we feel like it’s our children who are inside the cave. Everyone is still worried. Will they get out? Will they be sick? We are just praying for them to have a safe return.
The four remaining boys trapped inside the cave and their soccer coach should all be evacuated Tuesday, mission commander Narongsak Osotthanakorn told reporters.
Rescue operations resumed at 10:08 a.m., with a main diving team of 19 people heading in to retrieve the four kids and the coach, along with the doctor and three Thai Navy SEALs who have been with the group since shortly after they were found.
“I hope all 4 kids, and the coach, and the doctor and 3 SEALs will be all out today,” Osotthanakorn said.
The rain has started to pour in Mae Sai, Thailand, which could complicate efforts to rescue the four boys and their soccer coach still trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave.
Former Chiang Rai governor and rescue mission commander Narongsak Osotthanakorn has characterized the operation as a race against “water and time.”
Previously rescue efforts have been aided by unseasonably dry conditions, but with the return of the monsoon rains, efforts will take on a new urgency.
Experts close to the operation have expressed concerns that a rise in water levels could increase the risk for divers and extend the time required to bring the boys out from the cave. Currently, a significant part of the journey out of the cave is walkable.
The eight Thai boys who have been rescued from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex are healthy, fever-fee, mentally feet and talking normally, medical officials in Chiang Rai said at a news conference Tuesday.
Dr. Jedsada Chokedamrongsook, the permanent secretary of the Thai Health Ministry, said he expects the boys will spend about seven days in hospital because of their weakened immune systems.
Right now, they are all in quarantine as authorities work to determine whether or not any of them contracted infections while in the dark, damp cave.
Authorities will likely look for signs of Histoplasmosis, also known as “cave disease,” an infection caused by breathing in spores of a fungus often found in bird and bat droppings, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Two of the boys had lung infections, according to Thai health authorities.
Families of the first four boys rescued had been able to visit them through a glass window, Chokedamrongsook said.
Divers and rescue workers in Thailand have begun what could be the final push to free four boys and their soccer coach still trapped in a cave in the country’s remote north, according to a Thai Navy official with knowledge of the operational details.
Eight of the boys were taken out of the cave during the first two days of rescue operations, but five others remain trapped on a ledge 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) inside the cave system.
Thai Prime Minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha, met with families of the soccer team near the cave Monday.
The Prime Minister’s office distributed video of families meeting with Prayut who says, “No matter how much we spend, no one complains about it. Life is the most important.”
The Prime Minister is expected to visit the boys who have already been rescued in the hospital Monday night.
Danish cave diver Ivan Karadzic, who is stationed at “Camp 6” to assist the rescue divers, tells CNN that the divers believe today’s operation was “even more smoothly executed than yesterday,” which may be a result of less water being in the cave system.
He said that the boys were indeed wearing a full face mask as well as several wetsuits “to minimize heat loss.” This is because the water is very cold and they are “very skinny,” he said.
The boys are attached to the divers with a small line called a “body line,” which he says is “common to use in low visibility” in order “to minimize any kind of risk.”
Yesterday, when he saw the kids in “Camp 6,” he said they were “looking good considering the situation they were in.”
Divers now need to bring new air and oxygen tanks into the cave and place them at “strategic places” along the route, he said. It’s a contingency in case something happens with the gas supply of the rescue divers, such as an equipment malfunction, because the route is so long.
The mood among volunteers at the support center, many who have been staying up late cooking meals for the rescue workers, is significantly more relaxed than in previous nights.
People seem to sense that they are moving towards the finish line. There are lots of jokes are being shared and there are many happy faces.
Shlomi Aroush, a volunteer translator, told CNN that although people have been working for long hours over many days, the mood is upbeat.
“They have eight boys out and in the hospital, everyone is very positive,” he said.
This is in stark contrast to the mood Friday night, when all the boys were still in the cave and rescues had not yet begun.
The four boys who were evacuated from a cave in northern Thailand Monday were in better condition than those who were rescued Sunday, Narongsak Osotthanakorn, rescue mission commander, said at a press conference moments ago.
Osotthanakorn would not elaborate but did say all the boys who have been rescued are in good condition.
He added rescue workers will need at least 20 hours to prepare for the next operation, but timing could change depending on weather and water levels.
Monday’s rescue was carried out four to five hours ahead of schedule due to favorable conditions.
All rescue workers and divers are resting in preparation for tomorrow’s operation.
Officials will meet late Monday local time to discuss Tuesday’s plans.
The head coach of the Wild Boars soccer team had temporarily suspended all matches and practices after it emerged that the boys on the under-16s team were trapped in the cave. They were too worried about their teammates to play soccer.
But with news of the rescues, he decided to get the older team together for a practice in a show of unity with the rescuers, and to keep spirits up.
The mood there was optimistic, and the players and coaching staff were confident that the junior team would be home soon. Some of the over-17s told CNN they looked forward to welcoming their junior teammates home and playing football with them soon.
Here’s video from their practice:
The aunt of the coach trapped in the cave with the Thai soccer team told CNN her nephew loves the kids on the team, and the mothers trust him to take care of their children.
“Coach Ek, he loves those kids very much. Then kids prefer to go out with him – wherever their coach invites to go,” Thamma Kantawong said. “Children’s mothers trust him that he can take care of their child pretty well, because he loves kids very much.”
She added, “He is very good person, loves kids, takes care of kids, he is very diligent, volunteer himself to help others. The language he speaks is very polite.”
The coach is still trapped in the cave with the four remaining boys.
The four boys rescued from the cave in Thailand Monday were wearing full face diving masks while they were carried out of the cave to the make shift hospital nearby, according to an eyewitness who is part of the rescue operations stationed at the entrance of the cave.
He added that the boys were also wearing dive suits while being carried on stretchers and that their masks would be removed by medical staff at the make shift hospital.
As members of the boys’ soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand continue being rescued Monday, the focus is shifting to the boys’ long-term health and getting them proper medical aid. Health experts will be checking oxygen, malnutrition, dehydration, post-traumatic stress, and other psychological effects.
“One of the major concerns is oxygen right now. They’ve been in an area where oxygen levels are low,” Dr. Darria Long Gillespie of the University of Tennessee School of Medicine told CNN.
They will also be checked for malnutrition, dehydration and an array of other health effects.
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist who is also a scuba diver, called it “an amazing feat” that some of the boys had been rescued. She said officials would need to check for post-traumatic stress and other psychological effects on the boys.
She said it would be extremely important to relay the good news of the first boys’ rescue dto the others who remain trapped inside. “That would be such a boost for their confidence,” Lieberman said.
Read more:
Operations to remove boys and their coach from the cave in northern Thailand have completed for the day, according to an eyewitness who is part of the rescue operations stationed at the entrance of the cave.
The total number of boys pulled from the cave Monday is four, following the four that were pulled Sunday.
Four boys and their coach remain in the cave.
An eighth boy has left the cave Monday and been sent to a medical facility on site according to an eyewitness who is part of the rescue operations stationed at the entrance of the cave.
The total number of boys pulled from the cave Monday is four, following the four that were pulled Sunday.
Four boys and their coach remain in the cave.
Rescuers have pulled two more boys from the cave complex in northern Thailand on Monday, bringing the number of boys still stranded inside down to five. Their soccer coach remains inside the cave with them.
A total of 12 boys, all part of a youth soccer team known as the Wild Boars, first went missing with their coach more than two weeks ago.
The boys rescued on Monday were being sent to a medical facility on site, an eyewitness who is part of the rescue operations told CNN.
The fifth boy to be rescued from the cave complex in northern Thailand has arrived at a hospital in Chiang Rai. He will join his four teammates already being treated at the newly converted isolation ward at Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital.
Seven boys and their soccer coach still remain in the cave.
The fifth boy to be brought out of the cave system left the site on Monday afternoon by ambulance, an eyewitness at the scene told CNN.
Rescuers brought at least one boy out of the cave system on Monday, according to a witness outside the cave in northern Thailand.
He joins four other boys who were rescued on Sunday from deep inside the cave by a team of international and Thai dive experts.
The boys, all part of a youth soccer team known as the Wild Boars, first went missing over two weeks ago. Last Monday they were discovered huddled on a narrow shelf of rock deep within the flooded cave system.
After a relatively dry day at the rescue site, rain clouds are again hugging the hills surrounding the cave system.
With the exception of a few hours of rain Sunday afternoon, the weather has generally been kind to the rescue efforts, allowing them to pump millions of liters of water out of the flooded cave system, vastly improving conditions.
But the monsoon is an ever-present worry and even a short period of torrential rain could set back rescue efforts for the remaining boys and their coach.
The four rescued boys are in an isolation ward in a nearby hospital, says mission commander Narongsak Osotthanakorn.
They’re being held in quarantine for the next couple of days, and are asking for food – specifically Phad Ka Pao, a Thai dish of minced beef, basil and chilli – he said.
The boys endured nine days of little or no food while inside the cave, before being found by British divers on July 2. One of the first things they asked for was food.
In a joint letter to their parents delivered on Saturday, the boys said “we really want to go out and eat so many types of food.”
The youngest, Chanin Viboonrungruang, said he wanted to eat fried chicken when he was finally rescued.
His father, Tanawat Viboonrungruang explained to CNN that the boy’s letter was referring to a promise made to the boy by his aunt go to the local KFC.
Mission commander Narongsak Osotthanakorn confirmed that Monday’s attempt to rescue more boys from the cave began at 11 a.m. local time (12 p.m. ET).
It involves the same divers – with a “few swapped out” – who carried out Sunday’s treacherous operation which took nine hours and led to the rescue of four boys.
He said that the team “hope to hear good news soon.”
The second attempt started up after rescue workers got some rest and refilled supplies.
Amporn Sriwichai, the aunt of 25-year-old coach Akkapol Chanthawong, says she wants people to understand that he is a good person, and did not mean for the boys to become trapped. She tells CNN that he was orphaned at the age of 10 and has experienced “many difficulties.”
He wants nothing more than to give back and help others, she says.
While trapped in the cave, the young coach wrote a letter to his aunt and grandmother, who raised him.
To my aunt and grandmother,I’m OK, don’t worry about me too much. Take care of your health. Aunt, please tell grandmother to make a vegetable drink and crispy pork when I get out. I will go and eat it. Love to everybody.
He also wrote to the parents of the boys with him, begging them for forgiveness. In response, they wrote back:
We believe in you and your spirit that you’ve been taking a good care of our kids. We just want you to know that this is not your fault.
At least five ambulances have returned to cave entrance as divers make their way through flooded tunnels to reach 8 boys and their coach who are still trapped.
The operation recently restarted after a morning of preparation, which included refilling oxygen tanks used in Sunday’s rescue mission.
Four of the boys were carried out of the cave late Sunday, and are receiving medical attention in the nearby city of Chiang Rai.
The mission to extricate the Thai boys and their coach from the cave has resumed, according to a Thai navy official with knowledge of the operation.
The navy officer told CNN: “The operation has begun and it is ongoing at the moment.”
He added the same set of divers as yesterday have gone into the cave.
News of the rescue of four of the twelve boys Sunday night dominated headlines in the Thai press. This selection of papers in Bangkok includes the Daily News’ celebration of “Thai Navy SEALs and the super-skillful dive team” who spearheaded the operation.
The operation to extricate the remaining trapped boys and their coach from deep within a Thai cave has not resumed, says Deputy Commander to 3rd Army Region Maj. Gen. Chalongchai Chaiyakum.
The general, who is involved in the decision-making process, told CNN on the phone: “The operation has not resumed yet. We are still in meetings.”
Late Sunday, officials said the operation would pause for at least 10 hours to allow them time to refill spent oxygen tanks.
Hospital staff have placed a visitors’ book for members of the public to write messages of support to the boys, four of whom are currently undergoing treatment at the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital.
The book has been placed in front of the ER area, which has been opened up for the city’s residents to stop by and write a message to cheer up the boys.
Outside the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital where four boys are recovering after spending two weeks in a cave, lottery ticket seller Sarirat Ladloy says business is brisk.
“There are three numbers that people are looking for the most – 13, 23 and 38. The 13 number is because of the team (the twelve boys plus their coach). Twenty-three is referring to the day they went into the cave,” she told Reuters.
“Thirty-eight is referring to the number of Navy SEALs. I make very good sales,” she said.
Even while buying lottery tickets, though, passersby voiced their concern about the boys’ safety.
Resident Bualee Bamrung said that she is “watching the news every day. I am worried about them like they are my kids. I hope they come out safely.”
After ambulances sped away from the cave entrance Sunday, Chiang Rai’s governor, Narongsak Osottanakorn, gave details of the rescue mission.
Calling Sunday’s rescue a “very smooth operation,” he said the four boys rescued were wearing full-face diving masks, which eliminate the difficulties posed by the normal regulators that divers wear, including accidental removal.
He said rescue divers carried the first boy out of the cave at 5.40 p.m. local time (6.40 a.m. ET) Sunday. The second boy followed 10 minutes later. Two other boys emerged at 7:40 p.m. and 7:50 p.m.
“I’m glad that we have successfully completed the mission for the first four boys … but we have to prepare more oxygen supplies as we have used them up (during) this first operation,” Osottanakorn said.
He said that the rescue teams will make sure conditions are stable before restarting the rescue mission, but didn’t give any further detail.
For the first time in two weeks, the children at Mae Sai Prasitsart School started their morning assembly with good news – four boys have been rescued.
Officials haven’t released the names of the boys now being cared for in hospital, but a number of them were students from Prasitsart school.
Morning assembly is usually held outside but intermittent rain meant they stayed indoors this Monday and prayed in their classrooms.
“The good news is we had four (team members) out last night,” Cherdchu Thungpanya, the school’s assistant principal, said over the public address system. “Nine are still in the cave.”
He added that the country’s prime minister, Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha, was traveling to the site today.
“Let’s send our heart to them and rescue teams.”
Last week, ahead of Sunday’s complex operation to rescue the boys, Thailand’s Health Secretary warned that they would have to be quarantined for a short period of time.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health Jessada Chokedamrongsook made the comments last Wednesday after visiting the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital, where the first four rescued boys have been taken.
Following his visit, he said during a press conference that children would “be kept away from the parents for one to two days and will stay in the care room,” before a further evaluation by doctors for five to seven days.
According to a hospital press statement, “the next step is to make sure those kids and their families are safe because living in cave has a different environment which might contains animals that could transmit any disease.”
It’s tough welcome back for a group of young boys who have already waited more than two weeks for hugs from their moms.
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk shared photos and videos of a metallic pod that he claims could help rescue a group of boys trapped in a cave in Thailand.
Musk said in a tweet Sunday evening that the pod — or “kid-size submarine” — was en route to Thailand and would arrive in about 17 hours.
“Hopefully useful,” he said in one tweet. “If not, perhaps it will be in a future situation.”
There’s no suggestion that the pod will be used – the four boys already rescued were escorted out by elite cave divers who had to negotiate craggy, flooded tunnels.
Footage shared on Musk’s Twitter account shows a group testing the device in a Los Angeles high school swimming pool.
Musk’s post came after US and Thai officials confirmed Sunday that four of 12 boys trapped in the cave had been rescued. Hopes are high the eight remaining boys and their coach will follow soon.
The rescue operation to save the Thai boys has been described as a “war against water” as rain continues to fall, raising water levels inside the cave system where the Wild Boar team is trapped.
Unfortunately, the latest forecast shows more rain on the way, according to CNN Meteorologist Gene Norman.
“Runoff from rainfall around the cave area will likely be higher, raising the risk of rain entering the cave, raising water levels and increasing the flood threat,” he said.
As Thailand woke up on Monday, there had been a “relative lull,” Norman added, “but that won’t last much longer.”
“The monsoonal pattern is present, meaning rain arriving in waves, which can’t be adequately timed as they can escalate quickly.”
Onlookers watch and cheer as ambulances arrive at a hospital with boys who were rescued from a cave in Thailand. Divers escorted four boys from the cave on Sunday after 15 days being trapped along with their soccer team and coach. The other eight members of the team remain in the cave with the coach as divers prepare for the next rescue operation.
At least four of 12 boys were rescued Sunday after being trapped for more than two weeks in a flooded cave network in northern Thailand.Their soccer coach remains inside the cave with the other boys.
It’s not clear yet which boys were rescued. The boys are from several schools in the Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand.
In the days since their ordeal began, some details have emerged about their ages, favorite foods and soccer teams:
The rescue efforts in Thailand are still suspended while teams restock supplies and prepare to get the rest of the team out of the cave.
“There are eight more to go, plus the coach. And they have to stay down there for the next few hours — probably couple of days, actually — because there’s a problem with restocking the oxygen supplies down there,” CNN’s Jonathan Miller reports.
Rescuers have a dwindling window of opportunity, with forecasters predicting the return of heavy monsoon rains in the coming days, effectively sealing off the cave until October.
“The other problem they’ve got is, this has been described as a war against water and a race against time,” Miller said.
Watch more:
So far, four of the 12 boys trapped inside a Thai cave have been brought out. Officials said 90 rescue workers helped in the mission, including 13 divers.
Each of the rescued boys was escorted by two divers, CNN’s Jonathan Miller reports.
There are 36 US military Pacific Command personnel involved in the Thai rescue operation. They’re mostly from Kadena base in Japan, according to a US military official
The group includes a 12-man search-and-rescue team, which including divers. The US divers were not expected to participate directly in rescue dives.
Four of the 12 boys trapped in a Thai cave were rescued earlier today. Now, in the overnight hours in Thailand, teams are making preparations to get more kids out, CNN’s David McKenzie reports.
The mission has been temporarily suspended while teams restock supplies. Authorities said oxygen tanks needed to be refilled before continuing.
Watch more:
The first of the boys trapped in a Thai cave were rescued earlier today, and the mission has been temporarily suspended while teams restock supplies.
But rescuers have a dwindling window of opportunity, with forecasters predicting the return of heavy monsoon rains in the coming days, effectively sealing off the cave until October.
“We have two obstacles: water and time. This what we have been racing against since day one. We have to do all we can, even though it is hard to fight the force of nature,” Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said earlier, as rain began to fall across the site.
Here’s a look at rainfall totals in the area:
As the first members of the boys’ soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand were rescued Sunday, the focus begins to shift to the boys’ long-term health and getting them proper medical aid.
Oxygen is a top priority. Health experts said, authorities would first be checking the rescued boys’ exposure to a lack of oxygen while in the cave. Thai officials on Friday said oxygen levels in the cave air plummeted dangerously to just 15%.
“One of the major concerns is oxygen right now. They’ve been in an area where oxygen levels are low,” Dr. Darria Long Gillespie of the University of Tennessee School of Medicine told CNN. “As soon as they get out, that’s what they’ll be checking: their oxygen levels and their breathing.”
They will also be checked for malnutrition, dehydration and an array of other health effects.
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist who is also a scuba diver, said it would be extremely important to relay the good news of the first boys’ rescue to the others who remain trapped inside. “That would be such a boost for their confidence,” she said.
The rescue is two-pronged: to help the boys who have been brought out of the cave, while working to save the remaining boys and coach still trapped inside. The rescue operation, authorities said, has paused for the night. Authorities said oxygen tanks needed to be refilled before continuing.
From the transcript of Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osotthanakorn’s press conference moments ago, we learned:
Evacuations of four boys from a cave in northern Thailand took 10 minutes less than they did during practice, Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said in a press conference Sunday.
The governor said Sunday’s operation went smoothly but they would need to make sure all conditions were stable for the next phase of evacuations.
Rescue workers are scheduled to hold a strategy meeting late Sunday about remaining operations.
The governor said all boys were wearing full face masks for diving and were then carried out through the rest of the cave.
A member of the Thai police stationed outside Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital just told CNN that three ambulances carrying the rescued boys had safely arrived.
There was one boy in each ambulance.
Eve Tapanya from the Tourist Police said their condition was “not that bad,” and, “They’re OK.”
The hospital is about an hours drive from the cave. Doctors and nurses there have been preparing for days in anticipation of the rescue.
A Thai official just held a press conference near the site of the cave, where he confirmed that four boys have been rescued by the team of divers and Thai Navy SEALs.
Describing the “very smooth operation,” Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said the boys were rescued using full face masks. The first one was rescued about three hours ago.
He said the clock is continuing to tick for the remaining boys, and rescuers are going to focus on replacing the oxygen tanks so they can continue the operation.
He said he didn’t know when they would be able resume getting out the boys, but he estimated in approximately 10 hours, but no more than 20.
The President just tweeted on the rescues:
CNN’s Thai affiliate Spring News shot video that shows two ambulances racing to the hospital. Spring says the ambulances are holding two of the rescued boys.
The Thai Navy SEAL official Facebook page reports that four members of the Wild Boar soccer team are out of the cave.
A U.S. official briefed on the operation also confirmed to CNN that four boys were safely out of the cave.
Earlier a rescuer told CNN he had seen at least three.
This comes several hours after a team of 13 international cave diving experts and five Thai Navy SEALs entered the cave to begin the treacherous attempt to accompany the boys one by one through the flooded, narrow tunnels.
The family of 14-year-old Nuttawut Takumsonh are praying for their boy’s safe return, and say they first thing they’ll do when he’s out is throw a birthday party for him.
His grandmother, Wankaew Pakhumma has been praying at a small shrine in their home, worrying and waiting for him to come back safely.
Pakhumma says she’s “half happy, half relieved” that the boys have found, but says she’s apprehensive that something will go wrong.
“I worry (that) the officials (won’t) get them out safely.”
A member of the rescue team stationed at the entrance of the cave witnessed at least three boys evacuated out of the Thailand cave Sunday, as authorities race against time to free the boys and their soccer coach who have been underground for more than two weeks.
This comes several hours after a team of 13 international cave diving experts and five Thai Navy SEALs entered the cave to begin the treacherous attempt to accompany the boys one by one through the flooded, narrow tunnels.
Narongsak Osottanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai province, said that in addition to the Thai team, the rescuers were from the US, Australia, China and Europe.
The rescue mission is far from over. To reach the boys, divers must navigate a series of dark, flooded tunnels for up to six hours. With the entire round trip taking roughly 11 hours to complete, it could be days before the entire group emerges.
“Today is D Day.”
Not long after the international media was ordered away from the cave’s entrance, a team of 13 international divers and 5 Thai Navy seals began the rescue mission, the Thai government announced.
With water levels reaching their lowest parts in one of the chambers in the last 10 days, it was decided that now was the best time to get the boys out. More rains are expected in the coming days, and oxygen levels were rapidly depleting.
“I can assure that they are ready and they are determined and ready to be extracted. The boys are determined get out and their families are all informed and agreed with the decision,” Osotthanakorn said.
“I am asking everyone to wait for an update but we need the support from all and your best wishes for the successful of this operation.”
Thais have been gripped by the two-week drama unfolding at the Tham Luang cave system, and took to social media Sunday as rescue efforts unfolded.
Many have been sharing cartoons praying for a successful conclusion to the Wild Boar team’s odyssey, hoping that it will end in their safe rescue.
In the early 1990s, cave explorer Emily Davis survived a 91-hour ordeal after she broke her leg spelunking in Lechuguilla Cave, in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico.
She say divers taking part in the Thai cave rescue are “top-notch, international cave divers. They really know their stuff so I have confidence they’ll be able to do this.”
Davis says the key to a successful rescue is remaining alert and adaptable.
Cave rescue has to be malleable. They probably have a plan in place but there has to be some flexibility depending on any situation. The fact that they’ve drained the water down to the level they have, makes a major difference. It will make (the rescue) considerably easier.But there has to be availability of change, and because these guys are so experienced they’ll be able to change on the fly.
The waters in the Tham Luang cave system have subsided significantly, thanks to a round-the-clock pumping effort, but any fresh downpours threaten to complicate rescue efforts.
Rafael Aroush, an Israeli diver who lives in Thailand and has traveled to the rescue site to help, tells CNN’s David McKenzie that the weather, which seems to be closing in, is a “great factor” and “actually really scary.”
He says because the cave is limestone and there are many streams overflowing into the system, ongoing inclement weather could “destroy the whole operation.”
Speed is “very, very important,” now, he says. “(There) might be crucial changes in the rescue operation (plan) and somebody will make a decision maybe to bring more of them out today.”
Butch Hendrick, a rescue diver and president and founder of Lifeguard Systems, told CNN’s George Howell that cave diving is incredibly dangerous, and that even the best of the best can perish inside caves.
He said that in addition to “the problem of the narrow passageways … and no visibility, cave diving is in itself one of the most dangerous things we can do.”
He says in this situation there’s a strong current and “trying to get them back out, we’re basically fighting a flood – we’re working in an environment where the force is so great that (the rescue divers are) trying to figure out constantly how to make their bodies function through it, and continue to breathe,” he says.
“Trying to pull themselves back along the line, and be able to carry the boys with them, is an enormous effort.”
The operation to rescue the trapped boys and their coach is truly a global effort, with experts from the United Kingdom, United States, China, Australia, Japan, Laos and Myanmar.
Companies from other countries have offered support by donating equipment.
The rescue mission also attracted the attention of SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk, who offered to send engineers to join the already huge operation being carried out at the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex.
They were due to arrive on Saturday, July 7.
A statement said Musk may “provide services for location tracking, water pumping or battery power.”
For the families of the trapped boys, this is the day they’ve been waiting for – but it’s also one that fills them with dread.
There’s been no shortage of warnings in recent days about how risky the rescue attempt will be – not least the death of former Thai Navy Sgt. Saman Kunan, an ex-SEAL, who died early Friday morning due to a lack of air while attempting to return to a command center deep underground.
On Sunday, CNN visited the home of Peerapat Sompeangjai, whose family has been glued to the television, waiting for news.
Peerapat turned 16 years old on the day the boys disappeared. During the search, his family said that they hadn’t touched his birthday cake, in the hope that he would soon return home to share it.
Peerapat ‘s 17-year-old sister, Phanphatsa told CNN on Sunday that they’d eaten the cake, but she promised to make him another one – and all his favorite food.
Outside the house, the rain started falling, a bad sign for families who have been praying for clear skies.
Rescuers have spent days trying to pump water out of cave so the boys don’t have to swim against strong currents through narrow tunnels to escape.
Extra rain could make the journey out more challenging.
CNN’s Derek van Dam says there are “worrying trends” showing up on recent satellite imagery in Northern Thailand.
“It appears more rain is moving in from northern Laos to northern Thailand. I expect rain to pick up in frequency and intensity in the coming days.”
He says the heaviest rain will fall in the afternoon and evening hours.
Here is the latest rainfall forecast for Chiang Rai from Sunday, July 8, until Monday, July 16, along with the immediate three-day forecast:
On Saturday night rescue workers began putting up green tarp around the cave entrance in preparation for the rescue mission.
Media teams were asked to clear the area to make way for divers and their equipment. More oxygen tanks were brought in Sunday morning.
Hundreds of people are at the site, many who’ve come from around the world to help the rescue mission. Thai locals are also at the scene offering support services, including food for rescue staff.
Many have been there for days, working in the humid Thai summer. The ground is muddy after days of rain, and mosquitoes are out in full force.
CNN’s David McKenzie, who is near the cave, took a photo showing heavy sheets of rain falling in the catchment area of the cave system. McKenzie says that it’s a “total whiteout” over the mountain and that it’s “pouring rain.”
The assumption is that it could flow into the cave, potentially hampering rescue efforts.
It was the heavy monsoon rain that initially led to the boys becoming trapped – a flash flood cut off the boy’s escape route shortly after they entered the cave on June 23.
It has been largely dry over the past few days, aiding rescuers’ efforts to pump water out of the caves.
Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said that the pumping efforts had led to significant drop in the water level, to the point where the boys would be able to walk though some sections of the cave system.
This is an image of Prajak Sutham, one of the boys trapped in the cave. He turned 15 on July 1, the day before British divers found him and his friends inside the cave.
Prajak’s aunt told CNN she hadn’t prepared anything for his birthday but is now incredibly excited about the prospect of seeing him again soon.
“This is the second I am waiting for – I want to hug, I want to see him,” Salisa Promjak said.
Prajak’s grandmother was also excited about holding him close. “I would like to say I love you so much in the world and miss you so much,” Kiawkham Chantaphoon said.
A look at how far inside the Tham Luang cave complex the boys are makes it clear how challenging this rescue operation will be.
The boys are roughly four kilometers (2.5 miles) inside the cave from the main entrance.
Navy SEALs have set up an underground command center in Chamber 3, which is about halfway from the cave entrance to where the boys are stranded, but it still takes experienced divers hours to make the round trip.
Given the weakened state of the teenagers, and their inexperience diving, the journey out will be long and complicated.
Wild Boars coach Akkapol Chanthawong wrote a letter of apology to the parents of the 12 boys trapped with him in the cave complex.
All the kids are fine. There are people taking really good care of them.I promise I will take care of the children the best I can. Thank you for your support. I’m really sorry to the parents.
In response, the boys’ parents have assured him that they don’t blame him for the tragedy that has seen the soccer team trapped underground for more than two weeks.
Dear Coach Ake,We, as your soccer team member’s parents believe in you and your spirit that you’ve been taking a good care of our kids. We just want you to know that this is not your fault. We all here don’t blame you and just want you not to blame yourself. We all understand all the situations that have happened and we are here supporting you. We appreciate all your loving support and care to our kids. We are waiting for the news that you all get back out of the cave safely soon.Your aunt is also here waiting for you at the entrance.
Tanawat Viboonrungruang, the father of Chanin Viboonrungruang, also known as Titun, reiterated that the families aren’t blaming the 25-year-old coach.
“We don’t want him to blame himself and feel any guilt. We all understand that this is an accident and it’s (a) natural disaster in the rainy season,” he told CNN.
“We can’t anticipate what will happen… No one here will take this as his fault.”
This image of the boys emerged early in the search to find them. It shows the Wild Boar soccer team on one of their regular outings.
The boys live in Mae Sai, a small town in northern Thailand, very close to the border with Myanmar.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, love playing soccer and reportedly asked rescuers inside the cave about the World Cup.
In a letter to the Thai Football Association Thursday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino invited the boys to attend the World Cup final in Moscow.
If, as we all hope, they are reunited with their families in the coming days and their health allows them to travel, FIFA would be delighted to invite them to attend the 2018 World Cup final in Moscow as our guests. I sincerely hope that they will be able to join us at the final, which will be undoubtedly be a wonderful moment of communion and celebrations.
Rescuers are not taking any chances with the boys’ safety. The rescue mission to bring the boys and their coach out will be deliberate and methodical.
But Chiang Rai’s Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said says it’s still a race against time.
“We have two obstacles; water and time. This what we have been racing against since day one.
“We have to do all we can, even though it is hard to fight the force of nature. All we need is a suitable time window, when all conditions are right to carry out the operation. We have been waiting for this right moment.”
A post on the Royal Thai Navy SEAL Facebook page shows hands clasped together, with the caption “We the Thai Navy SEALS along with the international diver team, are ready to bring the soccer team home!”
It adds the word “Hooyah,” which is the SEALs’ battle cry; similar to the US Marines’ famous shout of “Oorah.”
The rescue team is comprised of five SEAL divers and 13 international divers, Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said.
The earliest they’re expected to emerge is 9 p.m. local (10 a.m. ET).
“They will come out separately. Each person will be escorted by two officers,” Osotthanakorn said.
It includes the two British divers who found the boys last Monday, a Thai Navy official said.
Already weak from spending more than two weeks underground, the boys are expected to be exhausted by the time they’re brought out of the cave.
In recent days, rescuers and emergency workers have been staging drills outside the cave’s entrance. An area has been cordoned off to clear the way for paramedics to wheel the boys out on stretchers.
Officials have announced that the road leading to Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital will be cleared from 3 p.m. Sunday to allow access for ambulances.
Rescue teams have been constantly pumping water out of the cave system, in a race against time before the return of heavy rain forecast for Sunday.
Water levels in parts of the cave are now “low enough to walk through,” said Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn.
In three of the main chambers – Chambers One, Two and Three – water levels have dropped significantly, and in “parts have receded as much as 30 cm (11.8 inches) – considered the lowest level for the past 10 days,” he said.
Divers are expected to escort the boys through the tunnels one by one. Once they reach the command center, the boys will be handed over separate specialist rescue teams, who will assist them through Chambers One and Two, according to a Thai navy official with knowledge of the rescue operation.
Low oxygen levels are adding extra urgency to efforts to get the boys out.
Deep underground and sealed in by the floodwaters, oxygen levels in the cave have plummeted dangerously low, to just 15%, Thai Navy Seal chief Rear Adm. Aphakorn Yoo-kongkaew said late last week.
According to the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the “optimal range” of oxygen needed in the air a person breathes in order to maintain normal function is between 19.5% and 23.5%.
Lower levels can result in hypoxia. Read more here.
Thai government spokesman Lt. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd confirmed to CNN that the country’s Prime Minister, Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha, is traveling to the rescue site to meet the boys’ families and to oversee the rescue operation.
He’s expected to arrive July 9.
The 12 boys and their coach are aware that the rescue operation has begun, Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said. Their families have also been told, he added.
Rescuers are confident the boys are strong enough to make the hours-long journey out of the cave. They’ve been fed packs of energy gel since they were found deep inside the cave on Monday, July 2.
Oxygen levels inside the cave are low, but tanks have been dispersed along the route out. Concerns about access to adequate supplies were raised on Friday when a former Thai Navy SEAL died when he ran out of air on his way out of the cave.
On Saturday the boys were able to send the first personal messages to their parents in two weeks.
In a joint letter they said, “don’t worry, everybody is healthy,” and asked their teachers not to give them too much homework.
In separate notes to their families, written in faint blue ink on lined paper, many boys told their parents they loved them.
Titun, the youngest member of the trapped Wild Boar soccer team, said he wanted to eat fried chicken.
His father told CNN when his soccer-mad boy comes home he can have anything he wants.
Divers will escort the boys out one by one before handing them over to separate rescue teams in Chamber 3, according to a Thai Navy official with knowledge of the operation.
Chamber 3 is where the underground command center is located, around two kilometers (1.2 miles) inside the cave.
The divers will stay inside the cave to continue the rescue operation, while the boys will be carried away on stretchers to waiting ambulances.
The 13 international divers involved in the rescue include two British divers who found the boys last Monday, the Thai Navy official said.
Thamma Kantawong, the aunt of the 25-year-old coach who has been trapped inside the cave with the Wild Boars soccer team, said that she was overjoyed to hear the rescue operation had begun.
“I am so happy,” she told CNN. “Now I am praying in front of a Buddhist image.”
At the entrance to the site, a thin white decorative flag, newly placed, fluttered in the wind, a Buddhist sign to indicate positive energy.
The dive team, comprised of 13 international divers and 5 Thai divers, will start bringing the boys out of the cave one by one, Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said.
The earliest they’re expected to emerge is 9 p.m. local (10 a.m. ET).
“They will come out separately. Each person will be escorted by two officers,” Osotthanakorn said.
The boys are around four kilometers (2.5 miles inside the cave). The round-trip from the cave entrance to where the boys are takes 11 hours.
As there are 13 people who need to be escorted out, the whole operation could “take days,” Osotthanakorn said.
The perilous mission to evacuate 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach trapped deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand is under way, Thai authorities have announced.
At 10 a.m. local time (11 p.m. Saturday ET), an international contingent of 13 specialist divers descended into the watery network of underground tunnels below the Mae Sai mountains, carrying with them the hopes of an entire nation.
The plight of the stricken boys, who have remained trapped inside the caves for 15 days, has transfixed Thailand, as rescue efforts have become ever more urgent.
Read more here.
Former Thai Navy Sgt. Saman Kunan, an ex-SEAL, died early Friday morning due to a lack of air while attempting to return to a command center deep underground.
Kunan, 38, was returning from delivering oxygen tanks to the cavern where the boys are when he ran out of air while underwater, Chiang Rai Deputy Governor Passakorn Boonyalak said.
CNN visited two of the schools attended by the some of the trapped boys and learned many local parents warn their children to stay away from the cave complex during monsoon season.
“I was very worried about what would happen to them. The caves are a dark and scary place. I wouldn’t dare to ever go in there,” said 14-year-old Kittichoke Konkaew, whose close friend, Nuttawut Takumsong, is among those inside the cave.
Students and teachers have continued to pray for the safe return of those still inside, even setting up shrines to the boys.
