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Six months in the flood Tham Luang Nang No cave complex in Chiang Rai Province, Thai Navy SEAL Chief Rear Admiral Aphakorn Yoo-kongkaew told CNN on Monday.
Rescuers are hopeful of a deeper chamber, informally named Pattaya Beach, where the group, members of the Wild Boar Soccer Team, are believed to have been trapped by the rising water.
It's been nine days since the boys, who are between 11 and 16 years old, and their coach enters the cellar for an afternoon outing, only to become stranded in the dark tunnels by a sudden and continuous downpour.
International experts have joined rescue efforts deep inside the cavern as the boys' parents maintain a constant vigil.
Dive teams are working around the clock, including the Thai Navy SEALs and experts from the US, China, Australia and the UK.
Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters Monday that 600 oxygen tanks are now in "Chamber 3" along with communications and electrical systems.
Written on the tanks are words of encouragement: "From Navy Command Region 1. Please find them soon." On the other side of the metal, are the words: "Bring the Wild Boar team home."
Oxygen Tanks were installed at 25-meter intervals along the cave's tunnels and chambers for the dive teams to use.
At the heart of the search is a T-junction about a kilometer from the cave entrance.
Rescuers have theorized that the group took the lead, which would eventually lead them to higher ground at Pattaya Beach.
But the channels leading to this, now flooded, have proven difficult for various to navigate.
Indeed, various are battling with dirty water, strong riptides and darkness so impenetrable that they can barely see their own hands in front of their
Osatanakorn told reporters .
"(If) the group went to the left side, there is … a very narrow space and very small channel.The foreign various (carrying) equipment will not be able to pass this channel. channel to get inside, "Osatanakorn said.
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Rescuers are still attempting to drain the floodwaters, but whil The water in the cellar is receding, levels are not significantly decreased at the crucial points of the third chamber and T-junction.
Several pumping machines are draining an estimated Military Major General Bancha Duriyapan told CNN.
Alongside the draining operation, rescuers are working on a secondary plan to access the caves from above.
The search teams have now been able to check out all of the above, Osatanakorn said, and found two chimneys that are considered viable options.
One of the options has allowed the rescue teams to descend to a depth of 200 meters, and they are continuing to go deeper,
Agonizing wait
In the vigils that have grown with every day of fruitless searches, families and friends have prayed, made offerings and held fast to the possibility of signs of life.
Some, enduring the torture of such a long, silent wait, have collapsed in the mud with exhaustion, and been sentenced to a hospital
"I feel I have just lost my heart when I found his bag, mobile "said Sudsakorn Sutham, whose son, Prajak is among the 12 missing boys. "But all I can do is wait."
Yet optimism remains that the boys will be found alive. "Theoretically, humans can stay alive 30 days (without food)," Osatanakorn told a press briefing on Monday.
"We believe and we still hope," he added.
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