The Thai governor says that the youth football team in the cave is not yet ready to dive

Rescue teams sneak through dense forests hundreds of meters above a cave complex, seeking an alternative way to extract 12 boys and their football coach who are not not yet ready to take a dip. Their work over the Tham Luang cave, near Thailand's northern border with Myanmar, gained momentum as the rain forecast threatened to bring the boys back to the entrance to the cave. Narongsak Osottanakor told reporters Friday that there are concerns about the weather and oxygen levels, but that they want to minimize the risks as much as possible.

"We want to find the way down, I believe we are close," said Thanes Weerasiri, president of the Institute of Engineers of Thailand, in a makeshift camp for volunteers and media near the cave. Helicopters buzzed before flying to the dense blanket of green hills above the cave to look for another extraction route.

Rescue efforts since British divers discovered that the team focused Monday on draining the flooded cave "Some of them are barely 11 years old and are not competent swimmers," to try dives that would challenge the expert speleologists.

Thai divers gather before entering Tham Luang cave where 12 boys and their coach remain trapped. Northern Province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, on Friday (Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters)

"We can not wait any more conditions [to be ready] because circumstances are pressing us", Arpakorn Yookongkaew, the Le Thai commander SEAL said at a press conference

"We thought at first that the boys could stay safe in the cave for a while, but the circumstances changed.

Insertion of a line of oxygen

Oxygen levels decrease because of the amount of workers inside the cave and workers were trying to pbad a line of oxygen. oxygen in the rooms in addition to the tanks used by the commander in chief of the army, Major General Chalongchai Chaiyakam, said the most urgent mission is the line of oxygen, which is connected to a telephone line to serve communication channel to children. are stuck deep in the complex, but are cared for by four SEALs, including a doctor.

The death of a former Navy SEAL working in the cave flooded on Friday rocked the rescue mission, and the rain forecast could undermine the body of Saman Gunan, a former Thai Marine SEAL member who died at the 39, a night mission, is transported to a repatriation ceremony and religious rites in Chiang Rai. The death of Saman Gunan, a former first-clbad petty officer, early in the morning, during an underwater swim in the partially flooded cave, particularly touched Thais because he was a volunteer on a mission humanitarian who has riveted the nation.

Thanes engineers work with the army to explore an area that they believe to be the back end of the cave, chiseling limestone rocks that he believes could be hundreds meters from where the boys are trapped. Originally, we were exploring it as a way to bring supplies to children from behind the cave, but now it could become more, "said Thanes.

Chalongchai Chaiyakum, a senior officer of the Thai Army, said that a The team had traveled some 300 meters along a well on the hill Thursday until they reached a dead end.

He says that up to 200 people are exploring the hill to try to find a mineable well.

The muddy shore where the boys are stranded is four kilometers from the main entrance of the cave, with sections of the last. 1.7 kilometer s extends completely under water. [19659002] The drilling raises concerns that parts of the cave could collapse on the boys. Efforts to expand the dive channels have raised similar concerns about blocking narrow pbadages and encirclement.

The billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted Friday that engineers from his companies – SpaceX and The Boring Company – were going to Thailand

Firms have an "advanced penetrating radar" which is " good enough to dig holes "or a technology that could" create a tunnel under the water "for kids to cross, said Musk earlier. The Thai government said the Musk team could help the rescue operation with tracking, pumping water or battery.

Parents, some of whom have camped on the site for weeks, say that they want the safest way out.

"I'm worried … he never plunged," said Somboon Kaewwongwan, the father of a 16-year-old boy trapped in the cave.