DANGEROUS MISSION TO SAVE 12 THAI SCHOOLBOYS BEGINS IN SUBMERGED CAVE COMPLEX

A dangerous mission to rescue 12 schoolboys trapped for two weeks in a cave in northern Thailand began on Sunday.

Eighteen divers attempted to bring the boys through narrow, submerged passageways that has already claimed the life of a former Thai Navy diver earlier this week.

“Today is D-Day,” said Narongsak Osottanakorn, head of the rescue mission. “At 10 a.m. today, 13 foreign divers went in to extract the children along with 5 Thai Navy SEALs.”

11-hour operation

Narongsak said the boys could start to emerge as early as 9 p.m. on Sunday, but that there was “no time limit” and the rescue operation could take a number of days or be halted at any time.

The rescue mission began after rainshowers soaked the Tham Luang cave area in Chiang Rai province for the past 24 hours, heightening the risks in what the governor has called a “war with water and time” to save the team.

Weather.com forecast sustained thunderstorms lasting through Sunday and Monday, with further stormy weather expected for around the next two weeks.

The boys, aged between 11 and 16, went missing with their 25-year-old coach after soccer practice on June 23, setting out to explore the cave complex near the border with Myanmar.

Way to escape

Narongsak said the operation had drawn some 130 Thai and international divers, including a mammoth team of lo- cal and foreign doctors.

To escape, the children must dive through dark, narrow passageways, sometimes no more than half a meter wide, which have challenged some of the world’s leading cave divers.

A former Thai Navy diver died on Thursday night, a grim turn in what began two weeks ago as an outing to celebrate the birthday of one of the boys.