‘Boys were sedated and stretchered out of cave’
CHIANG RAI: The 12 boys rescued from a Thai cave were sedated and passed on stretchers along the twisting, narrow passageways of the Tham Luang complex, a rescuer said on Wednesday as the first footage emerged of an astonishing mission that has captivated the world.
The video of the rescue, which ended yesterday when the final four boys and their 25-year-old coach emerged from the cave, was released by authorities who had closely guarded the details of the seemingly unprecedented operation.
Other video footage shows several of the boys in hospital, in quarantine and wearing face masks but seemingly in good health as they nod, wave and flash peace signs to the camera. The nerve-shredding three-day operation ended on Tuesday when the final members of the “Wild Boars” were freed from the cave which had held them captive since June 23.
The rescue sparked jubilation with Thais heaping praise on the rescue team of foreign and local divers as the triumphant tagline “Hooyah” pinballed across social media. But Thai authorities have been coy on how a group of boys, many of whom could not swim and none with diving experience, could have navigated the treacherous narrow and submerged passageways of the Tham Luang complex, even with expert diving support. After days of mounting speculation, a former Thai Navy SEAL diver broke the silence, revealing the boys were sleeping or partially-conscious as they were passed from diver-to-diver through the cave.
“Some of them were asleep, some of them were wiggling their fingers... (as if) groggy, but they were breathing,” Commander Chaiyananta Peeranarong told AFP. “My job was to transfer them along,” he said, adding the “boys were wrapped up in stretchers already when they were being transferred” and were monitored at regular intervals by doctors posted along the kilometres-long escape route.
He did not say if the coach, the only adult with the boys for nine days before they found, was able to dive and walk out unaided.
Footage released by the Thai Navy SEALS showed foreign and Thai divers using pulleys, ropes and rubber piping to haul stretchers bearing two of the barely moving young footballers to safety, their exit framed by the jagged cave overhead.
HOLLYWOOD MOVIE ON THE CARDS
The daring rescue in Thailand will soon be getting a film treatment with Pure Flix Entertainment, which produced God’s Not Dead, planning a feature film on the subject.
The studio will team up with Kaos Entertainment on the project, to be made with a budget of around $60 million. the CEO of Pure Flix, Michael Scott, spent several days at the scene, which serves as his home for a part of the year, according to Hollywood Reporter. The studio claimed that Scott has offered assistance in rescue efforts at Chiang Rai.