The plan was attacked as too risky, but brave rescuers forged ahead to rescue the first four of the 12 boys trapped in a Thai cave as torrential rains hit the region.
The youth, aged between 11 and 16, faced a dangerous and frightening trip out of the flooded cave system of Tham Luang Sunday
. Their biggest challenge was the beginning of the treacherous three kilometer route, during a terrifying 200-meter dive.
The boys had to sneak, 38-centimeter hole in the rock known as the "throttling point".
Each boy was accompanied by two divers – one in front and one behind. But at this point of throttling, where an uphill slope was followed by a sharp bend down, they had to go it alone, get out of the water and cross the summit before descending back into its depths. obscure
. for experienced divers with them, who needed to remove their bulky dive tanks to get through.
A journalist on the scene described the gap as "barely bigger than a standard school leader or the size of your head". Many boys trapped in the cave with their football coach can not even swim, and some are weak and exhausted by malnutrition. Rescuers have spent the last few days trying to teach them diving and breathing techniques.
The triage by an Australian doctor of 12 boys trapped in a cave in northern Thailand would have first saved four of the weakest children
. But after Alexander, a diver and anesthetist, 53-year-old Richard Harris, evaluated the youths and their coach, this strategy seems to be reversed, the Thai media reports.