Thailand cave rescue: Boys found alive after nine days

Dramatic footage was released early Tuesday of an emaciated and bedraggled Thai youth football team crammed onto a wedge of dry ground surrounded by water deep inside a cave that has held them captive for nine days.

The group, mostly seated and with baggy football, shirts pulled over their knees and illuminated by torchlight, asked for food and to leave the cave immediately, according to the video taken late Monday and shared on the official Facebook page of the Thai Navy SEALS.

The group appeared exhausted, rake thin, sensitive to the light but lucid, with some speaking faltering English to try to communicate with the unidentified diver.

A voice confirms there all 13 people who went missing last Saturday are on the slope of the land.

Their 25-year-old assistant coach, Ekkapol Janthawong, is known to have occasionally taken them out on day trips – including a trip to the same cave two years ago.

The youngest member, Chanin “Titan” Wibrunrungrueang, is 11 – he started playing football aged seven.

Duangpet “Dom” Promtep, 13, is the team captain and said to be the motivator of the group.

Tinnakorn Boonpiem, whose 12-year-old son Mongkol is among the 13, told AFP news agency near the caves she was “so glad” to hear they were safe.

“I want to him to be physically and mentally fit,” she said.

“I’m so happy I can’t put it into words,” another relative of one of one of the group told reporters as tears of joy streamed down his cheeks.

The challenges which lie ahead?

“They are all safe but the mission is not completed,” Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osottanakorn told a press conference at the command centre at the cave entrance.

“Our mission is to search, rescue and return. So far we just found them. Next mission is to bring them out of the cave and send them home.”

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The governor said they would continue to drain water out of the cave while sending doctors and nurses to dive into the cave to check the health of the boys and their coach.

“If the doctors say their physical condition is strong enough to be moved, they will take them out from the cave,” he said. “We will look after them until they can return to school.”

Edd Sorenson, a regional coordinator in Florida for the International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery Organisation, advises against trying to get the party out through the flooded caves using scuba gear.

“That is extremely dangerous and hazardous, and I would consider that an absolute last resort,” he told the BBC.
“Having somebody in zero visibility that’s not familiar with … that kind of extreme conditions, it’s really easy and very likely that they would panic, and either kill themselves and or the rescuers.

“So at this point, you know, I think they would be better off bringing in food, water, filtration systems, oxygen if the airspace needs it and requires it, and at least they have lights and hope now, so I think waiting it out, as long as they can get supplies in there to make them comfortable and warm and fed and hydrated.”