Thai soccer team’s cave ordeal not over as rain threat looms
CHIANGRAI: Rescuers raced to pump water from a cave in northern Thailand on Tuesday as forecasted heavy rain threatened to complicate efforts to free a young soccer team found trapped for 10 days, an ordeal officials warned they may have to bear longer.
Divers struggling through narrow passages and murky waters found the 12 boys and their coach late on Monday on an elevated rock about 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) from the mouth of the cave. The boys were weak, but had only minor injuries.
News of the survival of the “Wild Boar” team sparked jubilation in a nation gripped by the harrowing drama, with news websites and Facebook users celebrating their discovery and hailing the rescuers as heroes.
“Thank you all Thais, thank you all foreigners, everybody is a hero and everybody helped each other,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters.
A video shot by the rescuers in flickering torchlight revealed boys clad in shorts and red and blue shirts sitting or standing on the rock above an expanse of water.
“How many of you are there - 13? Brilliant,” a member of the multinational team tells the boys in English. “You have been here 10 days. You are very strong”.
“Thank you,” one of the boys said.
Another asked when they will get out, to which the rescuer answered: “Not today. You have to dive.”
Aged between 11 and 16, the boys went missing with their 25-year-old coach after training on June 23, when they set out to explore the caves in the forest park.
Rescuers now have to decide how best to get the group out safely, and warned it could take time.
Rain continued to fall in Chiang Rai and was forecast to intensify from Wednesday, pushing authorities to double efforts to reduce water levels in the cave and try to get the boys out sooner.
“If it rains too much, water levels will rise and make getting them out harder,” Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters.At the Tham Luang cave complex in Thailand’s northernmost province, security personnel turned away scores of people who came to show their support as more journalists arrived, joining hundreds of media who have covered the drama blow-by-blow for more than a week.