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Rescuers dig a path to the cave to evacuate the children and their football coach, July 3, 2018 in Mae Sai, Thailand (AFP / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)
The twelve children and their football coach found alive after spending nine days without food in a flooded cave in northern Thailand must now be put in shape before a delicate evacuation.
"Our research mission has been successful, but we have to get them out of there," said Governor of Chiang Rai Province, Narongsak Osottanakorn, chief of the relief cell, welcoming to have succeeded this "impossible mission".
"It's unimaginable, it's been ten days since I expected that, I never imagined that day would come," said the father of one of the missing children. Tuesday, a direct line, several kilometers long, should be installed along the main gallery, so that children can communicate with the outside world, especially with their parents.
![Screenshot of a video provided by the Royal Thai Navy on July 2, 2018 showing children inside the flooded cave in northern Thailand (ROYAL THAI NAVY / AFP / HO) [19659002] Screenshot of a video provided by the Royal Thai Navy on July 2, 2018 showing children inside the flooded cave in northern Thailand (ROYAL THAI NAVY / AFP / HO) </p>
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chances that they could be out as early as Tuesday were slim: the current level of water involves an underwater course that a veteran diver takes six hours to go, said the rescuers.
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The children, ages 11 to 16, were discovered late Monday with their 25-year-old coach by British scouts, emaciated but "safe and sound", more than four kilometers inside the gallery.
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The group was perched on a ledge located deep in the meanders of this cave, located on the border with Burma and Laos, where they were trapped on 23 June by the rising waters.
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– Learn to dive –
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Doctors have joined the children and must evaluate their ability to dive. Diving equipment was brought in, as well as food and medicine. "We have to train them … Let's see what they are capable of," the governor said.
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In the meantime rescuers continue to pump the maximum amount of water from the cave to facilitate their escape. Because it is to travel more than four kilometers separating them from the exit, partly flooded.
"We are about to evacuate them where they have entered and pump as much water as possible so they do not have to dive", or only for a short distance, Anupong Paojinda said on Tuesday. spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior.
The discovery of the children has brought joy to the country after days of difficult research, hampered by torrential rains. The television continues to follow the operation live.
The divers found the young people a few hundred meters beyond "Pattaya Beach", the area suspected of sheltering them, which was itself flooded.
A poignant video filmed by the rescuers shows a group of skinny children dressed in football jerseys that are too big and muddy. They are refugees on a narrow promontory surrounded by water.
"Thank you," exclaims one of them. Another responds "13" when a divers with a British accent asks how much they are.
– "Like a team" –
Nopparat Kantawong, the head coach of the children's football club, said he was certain that the fact that kids played team sports played a role in their survival.
"I am so happy, we teach them to love one another, as a team," he said on national television.
Added to this is the fact that "football is a sport of fighters," badured the one who will now wait for the children in front of the cave, like many relatives.
In 2012, miners in Peru were saved after seven days underground. And in 2010, in Chile, minors had held 17 days.
But here, the flood, the scarcity of air pockets and the fact that the group is made up of children, more inclined to panic than adults in principle, had complicated the situation.
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