THAM LUANG, 9 July 2018:
Thai Navy Seals have confirmed on their Facebook page that a total of eight boys have been rescued so far. Rescue workers in Thailand had been seen carrying a person on a stretcher away from a cave complex and into a waiting ambulance today, a witness said.
Earlier, two more people had been rescued from a flooded cave where 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped for more than two weeks, apparently taking the total number rescued to seven.
A mission to rescue a group of boys and their soccer coach trapped in the flooded cave since June 23 resumed hours earlier.
The first four boys, from the group of 13, including the coach, were rescued yesterday. A fifth boy was brought out earlier today, a navy official said.
This would mean only four boys and the coach remain in the flooded cave.
CNN reports the rescue operation has been suspended for today. The Facebook page of the Thai Navy Seals also suggests it is sticking to its plan of rescuing four boys per day. It said “Two days, Eight boars” referring to the name of the boys football team Wild Boars.
At least nine ambulances loaded with stretchers and blue oxygen tanks had earlier waited by the mouth of the cave today. Soldiers, medics, engineers and volunteers in yellow shirts milled around but the mood was relaxed.
“I feel very happy, everybody is happy,” said Hnin Jaiwong, the mother of one of the trapped boys, 13-year-old Sompong Jaiwong.
“I don’t know if he is out, they didn’t tell us,” she said as she rested in a hut close to the mouth of the cave.
The “Wild Boars” soccer team and their coach got trapped on June 23 when they set out to explore the vast cave complex after soccer practice, when a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels.
British divers found the 13, huddled on a muddy bank in a partly flooded chamber several kilometres inside the complex, on Monday last week.
The dangerous bid to rescue the boys – aged between 11 and 16 – got going again hours earlier on Monday after a break to replenish oxygen supplies and make other preparations deep inside the cave complex in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province.
Authorities have said the mission could take three or four days to complete. It is a race against the clock with heavy rain expected in coming days, which would again dangerously flood the tunnels.
Earlier, chief of the rescue mission, Narongsak Osottanakorn, told a news conference a team had gone into the cave to rescue the remaining boys at 11am (0400 GMT), and he expected good news.
The 13 foreign divers and five members of Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit make up the main team guiding the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on Friday.
Authorities have not confirmed the identity of the first four boys rescued. Some of the boys’ parents told Reuters they had not been told who had been rescued and that they were not allowed to visit the hospital.
Narongsak said the first four rescued boys had not been identified out of respect for the families whose sons were still trapped, adding that the boys were being kept away from their parents due to fear of infection.
“The four children are well at Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital. But they still need to be kept away from their parents and others due to fear about infection,” he said.
Medical teams previously said concerns included hypothermia and an airborne lung infection known as “cave disease”, which is caused by bat and bird droppings.
Somboon Sompiangjai, 38, the father of one of the trapped boys, said parents were told by rescuers ahead of Sunday’s operation the “strongest children” would be brought out first.
“We have not been told which child has been brought out … We can’t visit our boys in hospital because they need to be monitored for 48 hours,” Somboon said. “I’m hoping for good news.”
The cave complex is off-limits during the rainy season, which usually runs from May to October, when downpours can quickly flood it.
Relatives said the boys had been inside the labyrinthine complex during the dry season.
– Reuters