Vigil grows for trapped soccer players, coach
Richard C. Paddock and Ryn Jirenuwat THAM LUANG CAVE, THAILAND — Dozens of soldiers and park rangers lined up at the cave’s mouth, carrying in supplies. Teams of navy divers worked their way through submerged passageways in the flooded cavern. The vigil of family and friends outside echoed across Thailand on social media and television.
On Wednesday, the fifth day of an intense search for a young soccer team and coach trapped by rising waters inside the Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand, there was still no indication where they were.
But the search, spanning more than a dozen government local and national government agencies, continues, along with the hope that they are still alive.
“In whatever part the rescue team and officers play in the mission, I ask them to think of the boys as their own children because they will care so much about them,” the governor of Chiang Rai province, Narongsak Osottanakorn, told reporters at the scene Tuesday night. “We won’t abandon them. We are in this fully.”
Tham Luang is an extensive network of chambers linked by passageways that flood during heavy rains. A sign outside warns visitors that in the rainy months starting in July, it is unsafe to go inside.
From the entrance, a path leads about 2 miles into the cave complex before splitting into two directions, said Vernon Unsworth, a British spelunker who lives in Chiang Rai and has been exploring Tham Luang for more than six years.
At that junction, he said, the path goes about a mile in one direction and more than 4 miles in the other. The trail rises and falls, and many sections are now submerged, said Unsworth, who is helping with the rescue operation.
Footprints and handprints found within indicate that the boys passed the junction before the water rose and trapped them. But the divers have searched many of the chambers without finding any further signs of the group.
The air in the cave is thin,
Footprints and handprints found within indicate that the boys passed the junction before the water rose and trapped them.
but there are many places where they could have taken refuge that have enough oxygen to sustain them, Unsworth said.
The soccer team, called Moo Pa Academy and made up of boys ages 11-16, practiced as usual on Saturday morning. Afterward, a dozen players and their 25-year-old coach hopped on their bicycles and rode 6 miles to the cavern. They parked their bikes inside the mouth of the cave.
Then the rain started. One teammate, Songpul Kanthawong, 13, did not go to the cave because he did not have his bicycle with him at practice.
Saturday evening, as worried parents searched for their missing children, someone asked him where his teammates were. The cave, he said.
On Tuesday evening, after days of rain had made the mud outside the cavern thick and deep, the boy was worried. Everyone who lives in the area is aware of the danger, he said.
“They should have known,” he said. “They probably didn’t think the water would come up.”
The search has captivated this politically polarized country, prompting an outpouring of hope and support on social media.
“I gave up hope with people in this country before, but today, it isn’t the same,” one Thai Twitter user said. “It makes me realize that this country still has hopes, and a big heart. People in the country dropped their biases and are helping each other. They all help pray for the Moo Pa team to survive. I hope you are safe, brothers.”
After a night of heavy rain, divers spent Wednesday trying to get through narrow, flooded passageways. The hope was to reach remote chambers where the boys and their coach might have taken refuge.