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THAM LUANG CAVE, Thailand (Reuters) – A dangerous rescue mission to release 12 schoolchildren and their football coach trapped in a Thai cave for two weeks began Sunday, officials said, with the first survivor to emerge 11 hours later later.
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of the SEAL elite unit of the Thai Navy will attempt to bring the boys – some of whom are barely 11 years old and no strong swimmers – into passages narrow and submerged that cost the life of a former Thai Navy diver. earlier this week.
"Today is D-Day," Narongsak Osottanakorn, chief of the rescue mission, told the press. "At 10:00 am today (03:00 GMT), 13 foreign divers have entered to extract the children as well as 5 SEAL from the Thai Navy."
He said that the first boys could leave the cave around 9:00 pm local time (14:00 GMT) [19659002] The rescue mission began after the rain showers flooded the Tham Luang cave area in the Chiang Rai Province for 24 hours, increasing the risks in what the governor has called a "war with water and time". The boys, aged between 11 and 16, disappeared with their 25-year-old coach after playing football on June 23, exploring the cave complex near the border with Myanmar.
A gigantic response unit operation, ambulance and helicopter for each boy – waiting outside the cave for the team to emerge.
Narongsak said the boys could begin to emerge as early as 9 pm Sunday, but that there was "no time limit" and the rescue operation could take a number days or be interrupted at any time.
Doctor, who is part of Sunday's rescue mission, checked the boys' health last night and gave the go-ahead for the rescue to continue, Narongsak said.
Weather.com predicts sustained thunderstorms that will last until Sunday and Monday, with other storms expected for the next two weeks
Gong Hui, a Chinese diver involved in the operation which drew some 130 Thai and international divers, told Reuters on Saturday before the new rains that the water levels in the cave had "dropped a lot" after a sustained pumping had removed millions of gallons of water .
To escape, children have to dive into narrow, dark passages sometimes no more than two feet (0.6 meters) wide, which have challenged some of the world's most important divers.
A former member of the Thai SEAL unit died during a dive on Thursday night, a grim shift in what began two weeks ago. exit to celebrate the birthday of one of the boys.
(Additional report by Patpicha Tanakasempipat and James Pomfret, written by James Pomfret and John Geddie, edited by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Darren Schuettler)
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