Cave rescue: And then there were five

Four more boys saved, leaving four, their coach

MAE SAI, Thailand — The generals and other officials overseeing the desperate operation to rescue 12 young soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave labyrinth in Thailand’s sweltering far north were only half joking when they quipped Monday that success was in the hands of the rain god Phra Pirun.

They were celebrating a second day of stunning triumph after divers guided four more boys Monday through tight passages and dank flooded caverns to safety. “Two days, eight Boars,” read a Facebook post by the Thai Navy SEALS of the dramatic rescue that began Sunday, more than two weeks after the members of the Wild Boars soccer team were trapped. Another five still await rescue, including the team’s 25-year-old coach.

The eight rescued boys were recuperating in a hospital from their ordeal of huddling together on a tiny patch of higher ground where they had sought refuge after a rainstorm flooded the massive Tham Luan

Nang Non cave complex as they were exploring it after soccer practice June 23. Their families were being kept at a distance because of fears of infection and the emaciated-looking boys were eating a rice-based porridge because they were still too weak to take regular food, authorities said.

Officials lavished praise on the

Thai and international divers who, in pairs of two, executed the dangerous rescue mission, guiding the boys, who could barely swim and had no diving experience, through a treacherous 2½-mile escape route that twisted and turned through the cavern. Highlighting the extreme dangers, a former Thai Navy SEAL died Friday while replenishing the oxygen canisters laid along the route to the boys’ damp refuge.

But the chances of monsoon rains sending torrents of water into the cave and making the rescue effort too risky is never far from the minds of everyone involved in the operation.

Alluding to that worry, the regional army commander offered his thanks Monday to the rain god Phra Pirun, imploring him to “keep showing us mercy.”

“Give us three more days and the Boars will come out to see the world, every one of them,” Maj.-gen. Bancha Duriyapan told a news conference.

Sakchai Lalit The Associated Press A Thai well-wisher puts up a card of encouragement Monday for the 12 boys and their soccer coach who were trapped in a cave June 23 in Mae Sai, northern Thailand. Expert divers on Monday rescued four more boys, leaving the total...