In Thailand, the last chance operation has already saved four of the twelve boys

Update Sunday, July 8, 2:30 pm

Four of the thirteen young people stuck in a cave in Thailand have already been rescued and had to walk out of the last section safely, the ministry said on Sunday. of the defense. "Four boys have reached the third room", where is installed the relief base, and "can go out on foot," told AFP Kongcheep Tantrawanit, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.

Two d among them, one of whom was under close medical supervision, were on their way to Prachanukroh Hospital in Chiangrai Sunday between 2.30 pm and 3.00 pm

Apparently they were evacuated by the divers dispatched to the scene, but no official confirmation has not been formulated for the time being.

Below, our reportage made in Mae Sai on Saturday, July 7.

The monsoon rains that have fallen since Saturday night on the rocky peaks covered with forests of the Thai-Burmese border precipitated the outbreak of the evacuation operation of twelve children aged between 11 and 16 years and their 25-year-old football coach stuck since June 23 in a deep cave in the extreme of Thailand , in Chiang Rai Province. "Today is D-Day," Narongsak Ossothanakorn, governor of the province and coordinator of the operation, told reporters Sunday morning after he ordered the journalists to leave the command camp, a vast muddy space at the entrance. from the Tham Luang cave with awnings and hundreds of journalists and volunteer helpers. "The water level dropped by 30% in the cave, but the rains resumed. This is the right moment to launch the evacuation operation, "he said. The journalists are now confined to an administrative building located about one kilometer from the cave and can no longer see directly the operation.

Eighteen divers will participate in the evacuation operation: 13 foreign experts, specialized diving in the caves, and five commandos of the Thai navy. Each child and the coach will be badisted for the perilous journey by two divers, but in some narrow and flooded gullies, children will have to dive guided only by a rope and without visibility. All will be equipped with a mask and bottles; in the narrowest pbadages the bottle will be detached and carried by another diver. The strategy adopted is risky, but the beginning of the monsoon rains has left little choice. On Saturday night, Narongsak himself admitted that in the coming days, children "could be confined in a space of about ten square meters."

Two kilometers under the mountain

To understand the complexity of this rescue operation, it is first necessary to describe the geological profile of the Tham Luang cave, about ten kilometers long and situated at a depth between 800 meters and two kilometers under the Nang Non mountain range which straddles the border.

This limestone cave is divided into two main galleries, with some pbadages between one and a half meters wide, connecting three rooms dominated by impressive stalactites. When they entered the cave for what was to be a few hours' trip, the children and their trainer pbaded a spectacular 400-meter section of the cave called "Pattaya Beach" by a famous seaside resort. is Thai. They are 1,700 meters from the entrance.

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The disappeared were found on July 2 after ten days of research by dozens of divers and speleologists. The partially submerged route of the third chamber, converted into a rescue operation command center, where the children are, takes six hours to go, and five hours to return for experienced speleologists. So it is only late in the evening of Sunday that could emerge the first child if the rescue operation runs smoothly. The rescue operation will continue over the next two days.

Nobody knows how to swim

Since they were found, the children received high energy foods and were initiated to diving by Navy experts and commandos. But none of them could swim ten days ago. In addition, several of them, as well as the football coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, have not recovered from the ten-day forced fast and remain strongly weakened. It is therefore clear that the chosen option of a "horizontal evacuation" by such a network of galleries is risky.

The death on Thursday by drowning, in one of the submerged galleries, of Saman Kunan, a senior experienced rescuer A 38-year-old triathlon practitioner and former naval commando is a tragic testimony. This accident sent a shockwave through the kingdom, each taking better measure of the risks incurred. Feeling responsible for the harmful sequence of events, Ekapol sent Friday a letter to the parents of the children. "I promise to take care of the children as best I can. I apologize for everything that happened, "he scribbled on a sheet brought in by the rescuers. On June 23, he took the children to the cave after training, regardless of the fact that it is frequently flooded during the rainy season that begins in June.

Nestsmen

now more than two weeks, rescuers have tried to find other, less dangerous, opportunities to evacuate the children and their coach. Hundreds of soldiers and volunteers, badisted by drones, have discovered dozens of wells in the mountain range that covers the cave. The most promising, including 400 meters deep, were explored by speleologists and "hunters of bird nests", these southern Thais who climb into caves to collect swallow nests, a precious commodity in Asia. We found a fireplace that was several hundred meters deep. We will sleep there tonight to continue to explore, "said Friday a spelunker crossing the camp. Some of these wells were widened with drills to evaluate the possibility of using them for evacuation.

But, rescuers soon realized that the chance that one of these chimneys communicated directly with the part of the gallery where the children are and their coach is tiny. "We must understand that we are in a network where we have a gallery and that it is not a very large size. So if we drill a bit at random, simply by using the precision of the cartography, we are likely to miss out, "said in an interview with Radio France Internationale Bernard Tourte, president of the relief commission within the French Federation of Speleology

Beyond technical strategies, some Thais, many of whom mix Buddhism and superstitious practices, have also turned to supernatural means. Friday night, at the foot of the muddy slope leading to the cave, a monk came from a nearby temple chanted mantras after deploying a magico-Buddhist diagram on a table. "I open the forest. Ghosts and spirits protect the forest. Maybe these children have made a mistake. I invoke these spirits to implore their salvation, "he explains.