Search for soccer team lost in caves
Thai rescue workers will drill a narrow shaft into a cave where 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach are believed to be trapped by flood waters, Thailand’s interior minister said yesterday, the fourth day of a search that has been hampered by heavy rain.
The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their assistant coach, 25, went missing on Saturday after soccer practice when they set out to explore the Tham Luang cave complex, which is known to be prone to flooding in the rainy season.
Thai volunteers and military teams, including 45 navy Seal unit members, have been deployed at the flooded cave complex, which runs 10km under a mountain in the northern province of Chiang Rai.
Chanting monks in orange robes prayed alongside distraught relatives outside a flooded cave as rescuers battled heavy rain as they struggled to drain the flooded tunnels.
“Tomorrow we can drill into the mountain but we won’t drill too deep. Just enough to allow people through,” Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda said in Bangkok.
While distraught relatives and friends gathered at the mouth of the cave, rescue workers pumped water out, but the persistent heavy rain has slowed their progress.
“Water is the biggest challenge. There is a lot of debris and sand that gets stuck while pumping,” Thai army Sergeant Kresada Wanaphum said.
According to messages the boys exchanged before setting off, they had taken torches and some food.
Apart from some footprints and muddy handprints near the cave entrance, nothing has been seen or heard of them since Saturday evening, and the race to find them has dominated the news in Thailand.
“I’m confident all are still alive,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said.
Three foreign divers coming from Britain were expected to reach Bangkok last night.
Thailand has asked the United States for survivor detection equipment, Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said. –