Fear for kids trapped in cave

A TEAM of US military personnel and British divers joined rescue efforts at a flooded cave in northern Thailand where 12 children and their football coach have been trapped for five days as heavy overnight rains hampered the search.

Flood waters seeped into a second chamber of the Tham Luang cave and forced some of the rescue divers to turn back, according to officials.

The children, aged between 11 and 16, went into the cave on Saturday and were trapped when heavy rains clogged the main entrance.

Around 1 000 Navy SEAL divers, police, soldiers, border guards and officials have been mobilised for the around-the-clock rescue in a remote and mountainous part of Chiang Rai province near the Laos and Myanmar borders.

A team of American military personnel from the US Pacific Command, including para-rescue and survival specialists, arrived at the site overnight to help rescue operations.

Three British cave diving experts made a second attempt at entering the cave through chimneys yesterday after they tried to go in through the main entrance on the day before but were turned around by rushing flood waters.

At nearly 10km, Tham Luang cave is one of the longest in Thailand and has the reputation of being one of the toughest, even among experienced divers. It frequently floods during Thailand’s monsoon season between July and November, rendering some of its narrow passages difficult to pass through.

Despite air pockets, fast-running and murky flood waters have prevented rescue divers from reaching them and heavy rains continue to seep into the cave through narrow openings on the sides and through the main entrance.

Officials said they planned to drill a hole into the cave today and dispatched drones to find an ideal site for the hole. They hoped visibility could improve as the fog lifts. — AFP