Save the other 4 boys trapped in the cave

Generals and other officials who are leading the desperate operation to save 12 young footballers and their trainer from a labyrinthine cave flooded in Thailand's torrid northern tip, half joked when they said Monday that success was in the hands of Phra Pirun, the god of the rain

They celebrated a second day of triumph after the divers guided four other children on Monday through the narrow passages and from the wet and cold caves until a safe place. "Two days, eight boars," read the Facebook post of SEAL's special force of the Thai Navy on the spectacular rescue that began Sunday, more than two weeks after the members of the Jabalíes football team were trapped. Five more are expected, including the 25-year-old coach.

The eight surviving boys recover in a hospital after being trapped in the huge cave complex Tham Luan Nang No No when they went to explore after a training session on June 23. Faced with fears of infection, they were separated from their families. The children, who looked emaciated, were eating rice-based porridge because they were still too weak to eat normally, say the officials.

Officials rented Thai and international divers who, by two, performed rescue mission, guiding children who can barely swim across the dangerous 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) evacuation route which winds through the cave. To highlight the extreme danger, a former Thai SEAL died Friday while he was filling the oxygen tanks along the emergency route.

But those involved in the operation do not stop thinking about the possibility that the rains send torrents In reference to this concern, the regional commander of the Navy offered his thanks to the god of the rain, Phra Pirun, and implored him to "continue to show us his mercy".

"Give us three more days and the boars will go to see the world," said Bancha Duriyapan at a press conference, interrupted by the applause of dozens of Thai and foreign reporters, and to say goodbye. others in the audience. "I beg Phra Pirun, because the meteorological department said that from Monday there will be continuous rains," Bancha said. "If I ask too much, I can not comply, so I ask for three days."