Thai divers advance as cave search for lost boys gains ground

This handout photo taken on June 29, 2018 and released by the Royal Thai Navy SEAL on June 30, 2018 shows a team of Royal Thai Navy SEAL divers inspecting the water-filled tunnel in the Tham Luang cave during a rescue operation for the missing children’s football team and their coach in Chiang Rai province.
Thai rescue teams searching for 12 boys trapped in a water-logged cave practised evacuation and medical procedures, as the desperate search hit its seventh day. / AFP PHOTO / Handout

Rescue divers inched closer to a spot in a flooded cave where 12 boys and their football coach have been missing for more than a week after days of bad weather beset the grueling search.

The children, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old assistant coach have not been heard from since they ventured into the recesses of the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand on Saturday and were blocked by heavy rains.

But the clouds parted on Sunday and with the help of water pumps divers were able to established a forward operating base inside the twisting chambers, raising hopes that the “Boars”, as the team is known, could be located soon.

“Today is a bright day for me and our team. We have sunlight today, roads are easily walkable,” Narongsak Osottanakorne, governor of Chiang Rai province, told reporters on Sunday afternoon.

He said water levels in the cave had decreased and that almost 60 foreign and Thai divers were involved in the rescue effort.

“Today what we have to do is to rush to the kids,” Thai Navy Seal commander and Rear Admiral Apakorn Yookongkaew said earlier at the site. “We will not stop until we find them.”

Responders are placing extra oxygen tanks, strong ropes and LED lights along the cave’s walls in hopes they can provide a path to an airy chamber called Pattaya Beach where officials believe the 13 are taking refuge because of its elevation.

A Thai Airforce worker drops in by helicopter into a clearing in the forest near a possible overground opening to the Tham Luang cave, at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Chiang Rai province on June 30, 2018 as the rescue operation continues for the children of a football team and their coach.
Rescue divers reached several kilometres inside a flooded cave on June 30 where 12 boys and their football coach have been trapped for a week, offering a flicker of hope for the harrowing search. / AFP PHOTO / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

Rescuers have advanced 600 metres from the base towards the Pattaya site, while heavy drilling at separate chimneys outside the cave has started in an attempt to establish communication with the boys.

The upbeat attitude comes after a week of heavy rains pounded the area near the Myanmar and Laos borders, making it difficult to reach deeper into Tham Luang.

“I’m feeling happy like I’ve never felt in a long time. Many good signs,” the football team’s head coach Nopparat Khanthavong, 37, told AFP on Sunday.

“The rain has stopped and rescue teams have found potential ways to reroute the waterway”, diverting its flow so no more enters the cave, he said. “The families are feeling much better too.”

This handout photo taken on June 29, 2018 and released by the Royal Thai Navy SEAL on June 30, 2018 shows a team of Royal Thai Navy SEAL divers inspecting the water-filled tunnel in the Tham Luang cave during a rescue operation for the missing children’s football team and their coach in Chiang Rai province.
Thai rescue teams searching for 12 boys trapped in a water-logged cave practised evacuation and medical procedures, as the desperate search hit its seventh day. / AFP PHOTO / Handout
– ‘I miss them’ –

 

The dramatic wait has transfixed Thailand, capturing the attention of social media users, dominating front pages of newspapers and grabbing international headlines.

Teams of foreign experts from Australia, England, Japan and China, including more than 30 US military personnel, have descended on the remote mountainous site to join some 1,000 Thai rescuers.

The field where the Boars used to practice is now a helipad used to lift up heavy machinery.

“Every single day the conditions are changing,” Jessica Tait, a spokeswoman for the US troops, told AFP. “With the improvement with the weather, hopefully some other areas and some of the efforts are becoming easier.”

Large pumps were installed in a nearby village to drain water from the area.

Thai Airforce soldiers carry equipment towards a possible opening to the cave network near Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Chiang Rai province on June 30, 2018 as the rescue operation continues for the children of a football team and their coach.
Rescue divers reached several kilometres inside a flooded cave on June 30 where 12 boys and their football coach have been trapped for a week, offering a flicker of hope for the harrowing search. / AFP PHOTO / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA
Rescue personnel gathers near the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Chiang Rai province on June 29, 2018 as rescue operation continues for a missing children’s football team and their coach.
Divers resumed the search for 12 boys and their football coach who have been trapped in a cave in northern Thailand for six days after the underwater rescue was halted because of rising floods. / AFP PHOTO / Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

At 10 kilometres (six miles), Tham Luang is one of Thailand’s longest and toughest caves to navigate, but drilling experts hope its limestone formations could make a series of holes and alternative entrances explorable by camera.

“We still expect some difficulties, because we have to drill not vertical, but inclined,” Suthisak Soralump, a geotechnical engineer leading up the effort, told AFP. “But anyway we put our best team in Thailand to come. So let us try.”

Officials said the boys know the site well and have visited many times, so they may have been able to find shelter.

Rescuers discovered footprints and handprints in a chamber earlier in the week, farther in from where they recovered the kids’ football boots, backpacks and bicycles.

The abandoned bicycles belonging to the missing children are seen parked together while Thai rescue personnel conduct rescue operations under floodlights, seen in the background, at the entrance of Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province on June 26, 2018 as the search continue for the 12 children and their coach.
/ AFP PHOTO / LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA

Relatives and friends are praying for their safe return.

“I miss them,” said 15-year-old Thananchai Saengtan, a friend of one of the boys. “I want them to come back so we can play football together again.”

© Agence France-Presse

 

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