Prime minister: Thailand cave rescue mission will continue

THAM LUANG CAVE, Thailand — The prime minister of Thailand, Prayuth Chanocha, offered words of encouragement Friday to the families of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave complex and pledged to continue a massive search and rescue operation.

“Until they come out, the officers will never abandon them,” Prayuth told about 75 relatives during his visit, in which he also inspected the cave entrance and spoke with officials leading the closely watched search.

Later, however, officials acknowledged that they faced many obstacles in finding the boys, ages 11 to 16, and their coach, 25, who have been missing since Saturday afternoon.

Despite a major mobilization of soldiers, park rangers, expert divers, engineers and geologists, the operation has made little headway.

The governor of Chiang Rai province, Narongsak Osottanakorn, who is overseeing the operation, said a few days ago that rescuers might reach the children by Friday. Instead, rising floodwaters have further inundated the cave.

Now, he said, he could not predict when rescuers might find them.

The group is trapped inside Tham Luang Cave, a popular destination for explorers in northern Thailand.

The cave complex was relatively dry when the team entered six days ago. But since then, heavy rains have caused floodwaters to rise inside, cutting off the team’s only route to escape and making the way virtually impassable for rescuers.

The governor said Friday afternoon that searchers had rappelled about 40 meters down a newly discovered chimney and into a muddy chamber. They were exploring it for an opening into the main cave system.

The government has brought in more than 40 pumps to try to reduce the volume of water. Nevertheless, the water level has kept rising.

Friday, Narongsak said, was the first day that the pumps were able to keep pace with the volume of water entering the cave.

“We think it is progress,” he said. “But today we have the same rate.”