The assessment is reviewed to four children evacuated from the cave

A balance sheet revised downwards. The difficult evacuation of the twelve children and their football coach stuck in a cave
Thailand for 15 days began Sunday and four of them were successfully evacuated, the others to be on Monday after a strenuous expectation for families.

According to the official record, a first group of four boys, each guided in the cave flooded by two professional divers, has already managed to get out. A Defense Ministry official, on condition of anonymity, had said a little earlier: "Six of them are out," but the official record was never revised in the evening and no explanation provided.

"The next operation should begin in ten hours minimum"

The first four victims were evacuated aboard ambulances and helicopters to Chiang Rai Hospital. Local journalists saw the ambulances leave the site in the direction of a heliport. "The next operation should begin in at least ten hours," Narongsak Osottanakorn, the head of the Crisis Cell, told a press conference on Sunday evening.

In the morning, he announced that the "big day" of the evacuation had finally come. Relief had warned that the children would come out "one by one", assisted each by two professional divers, and that it would take a total of "two to three days". They finally opted for a children's exit in two groups.

The first evacuation was faster than expected, more than two hours ahead of schedule. And the second group could come out on Monday morning according to the most optimistic scenario.

Five hours per child

No image of the operation has emerged for the time being, the Thai authorities having created a large area of security around the area.

The "wild boar" football team had gone to explore the cave on June 23, after the training, for a reason still unknown. They found themselves trapped by the rising waters in this cave deep in northern Thailand, on the border with Burma and Laos.

Until now, it took eleven hours for a seasoned diver to return to the children: six hours to go, five hours back thanks to the current. Several kilometers in rough casings, the route out of the cave includes difficult underwater passages.

Sign of the danger of the company, a former diver of the Thai navy died Friday during a supply operation for children. A good number of children, aged 11 to 16, can not swim and none have dive. "I send them my strength. I hope they will get there, "said Nopparat Khanthavong, the team's main football coach, before the children's release. Families did not answer the phone on Sunday

The conditions for evacuation are considered "perfect" these days by the Crisis Staff, particularly with regard to the water level in the cave.

Back

Rescuers have been wondering for days about the need to trigger a perilous evacuation, monsoon rains expected soon that could ruin the ongoing efforts to drain the water of the cave.

had managed to insert a pipe of several kilometers to carry oxygen in the pocket where the group took refuge and the oxygen level stabilized in the cave. But Saturday evening and Sunday, showers fell, reminding the urgency to get the children out.

The rescuers evacuated Sunday morning to journalists around the cave. "All those who are not involved in the operation must leave the area immediately," the police said loudspeaker on the site, where were hundreds of journalists following this "saga" having taken an international scale.

A problematic influx of journalists

The announcement of the police was followed by a stir in the camp mounted by journalists, with cameras everywhere and cots to be at the best places for filming the evacuation of children.

The head of the Crisis Staff, warned late Friday that the influx of media in this mountainous rainforest was a problem. "We have more and more media coming and going everywhere," he said. "The medical teams have complained to me that this is becoming a problem," he said.

Faced with the influx of journalists, wading through the mud for days, the authorities had laid out metal barriers for keep away and allow rescuers to work without cameras around.

On Sunday, many media rushed to Chaing Rai Hospital, an hour away from the site, where the victims must be evacuated. But here too, the authorities banned the immediate approach of the hospital.