Dramatic rescues that challenged the odds

For days, Thailand watched anxiously every turn of a dramatic race against time to find twelve boys and their football coach trapped in a complex of caves and surrounded by monsoon floods.

The search finally ended on Monday, with dramatic images showing the boys – exhausted, muddy and shriveled after nine days stranded – crammed on a dry patch of land, some English speaking faltering with the British diving team who found them

Now the focus is on the arduous task of extracting the group of winding chambers and narrow pbadages of the Tham Luang complex of 10 kilometers long.

Rescuers announced Tuesday that they were planning to provide the four-month-old with food while a rescue can be planned, indicating that the football team's stay underground – and l & # 39; Their family's agonizing waiting to surface – may not be over yet.

Miners trapped underground, sailors trapped under water, here are some spectacular rescues that happily end despite mbadive obstacles.

On November 22, 1999, rescuers reached seven men trapped in a network of caves in southwestern France.

The men, all experienced speleologists, found themselves trapped in the Vitarelles caves when strong storms caused flooding, cutting them out of the way

The unprecedented rescue mission rivaled France.

They eventually reached them after squeezing one of the wells and following an underground river.

The men prudently rationed their food and still had enough water and gas to light the two men. days when they were saved. All were in good health.

PENINSULA OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA. 2005

The crew of seven men of a Russian Priz mini-submarine ran out of air after three days trapped under the water when they were finally rescued.

Their submarine entangled in marine debris on August 4, 2005 the Russian crew was powerless to leave the position at about 190 meters (625 feet) below the surface of the ocean.

The incident was immediately compared to the Russian submarine accident of Kursk five years earlier.

But the Priz crew was rescued after a British submarine robot cut off the ship.

Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded medals to the British team that rescued the submarine crew and Moscow announced that it would buy several submarines. The robots used in the rescue

The fate of 33 men trapped in a Chilean mine 600 meters (2000 feet) underground after the collapse of a rock on August 5, 2010 made the headlines international newspapers

. The men had survived on reduced rations, with only 15 boxes of tuna between them, said survivor Franklin Lobos.

19659004] "We ate a teaspoon every 24 hours, then every 48 hours and finally we ate a teaspoon every 72 hours. It was horrible. "

Even after the men were located and the food was sent to them, it took weeks before the rescuers finally managed to get the miners up.

In all, their ordeal lasted nearly 70 days.

Nine miners, including a father and a son, spent seven days trapped underground after a collapse in southern Peru on April 7, 2012.

Rescuers led men wrapped in blankets and carrying Black glbades to protect their eyes.

The rescue operation at the illegal mine was hampered by fear of further collapses when rescuers dug into the rock and soil.

Huddled in an opening 250 meters underground, men joked and exercised to pbad the time and stay positive.

"This moment, it's like reborn," said one of the men rescued after a meeting in tears with his family

UNTERSBERG, GERMANY. ] More than 700 emergency personnel worked to rescue Johann We sthauser after suffering a severe head injury at the bottom of a German cave system on June 8, 2014.