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The evacuation of twelve children and their football coach stuck in a cave flooded in Thailand for 15 days finally began Sunday, after days of postponement due to too much risk, with long portions of diving.
"Today is the big day … The boys are ready to face any challenge," Narongsak Osottanakorn, the head of the Crisis Staff, told a remote press conference of the cave.
"The first should come out around 21 hours" (14:00 GMT), said the official, who is also the governor of Chiang Rai province, announcing the departure to the children of "thirteen specialists World level from countries with expertise in caving
Until now, it took eleven hours for a seasoned diver to make the round trip to children: six hours to go, five hours back thanks to the current
Several kilometers long in rough hulls, the way out of the cave includes difficult underwater pbadages.
Sign of the company's danger, a former diver of the Thai navy perished on Friday during a refueling operation
However, a good number of children, aged 11 to 16, can not swim, and none have done any diving.
– "Perfect Conditions" –
Currently, the conditions for an evacuation are considered "perfect" by the cell of crisis, in particular as regards the level of water in the cave.
The rescuers evacuated Sunday morning the site of the Thai cave where the children and their trainer are trapped in order to make room for "helping the victims."
"All those who are not involved in the operation must leave the area immediately," police announced loudspeaker site, where there are hundreds of journalists.
"We must use the area to help the victims," the police added in the speaker. No details could be obtained at first as to the imminence of the extraction of children.
The announcement of the police was followed by a stirring up in the camp mounted by journalists , with cameras everywhere and cots to be at the best places to film the evacuation of children.
The head of the Crisis Staff, had warned Friday night that the influx of media in this mountainous forest area tropical was a problem. "We have more and more media coming and going everywhere," he had criticized.
"Medical teams complained to me that this is becoming a problem," he said, citing measures to come.
Faced with the influx of journalists, wading through the mud for days, the authorities had placed metal barriers to keep them at bay and allow rescuers to work without cameras around.
Children were found trapped on June 23 by the rise of waters in this cave in the depths of northern Thailand, on the border with Burma and Laos.
The relief had wondered for days on the opportunity to trigger a perilous evacuation, monsoon rains expected soon could ruin the efforts continued for several days to drain water from the cave.
– going out before the rain –
Relief had succeeded in inserting a multi-kilometer pipe to carry oxygen into the pocket where the group fled and the oxygen level stabilized in
But rains expected soon could reduce much of the muddy ledge on which the group took refuge.
Saturday night, a heavy monsoon shower fell for half an hour, reminding of the urgency to evacuate the children.
It was already because of the monsoon rains that the children found themselves trapped after having decided, for a still unclear reason, to go to the cave after their football training, with their young 25-year-old coach
In parallel, the crisis unit continued drilling in the mountains, for possible evacuation from the top, and more than a hundred holes were drilled vertically in the mountain: some shallow, but the one of them is 400 meters long. Sunday morning, no breakthrough on this side had been announced.
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