Hooyah! All 12 Thai boys, coach rescued from cave

MAE SAI, Thailand (AFP) — All 12 boys and their football coach have been rescued from a Thai cave after an 18-day ordeal, the Thai Navy SEALs said in a Facebook post, adding they were “safe”.

“All 12 ‘Wild Boars’ and coach have been extracted from the cave,” the post said, adding “all are safe” and signing off with a simple “Hooyah”.

Four divers who stayed with the group were still to emerge, it

added.

Earlier, authorities were confident of getting the last four boys and their football coach out by Tuesday evening, 18 days after the dozen boys and their coach became trapped deep inside the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand.

“(They) will be extracted today,” rescue chief Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters on Tuesday morning after elite foreign divers and Thai Navy SEALs escorted eight members of the “Wild Boars” football team out in highly risky operations over the previous two days.

Then on Tuesday afternoon multiple sources involved in the operation said three more boys had been brought out.

The 12 boys, aged from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach, ventured into the cave on June 23 after football practice and got caught deep inside when heavy rains caused flooding that trapped them on a muddy ledge.

They spent nine harrowing days trapped in darkness until two British divers found them.

Authorities then struggled to devise a safe plan to get them out, mulling ideas such as drilling holes into the mountain or waiting months until monsoon rains ended and they could walk out.

With oxygen levels in their chamber falling to dangerous levels and complete flooding of the cave system possible, rescuers pushed ahead with the leastworst option of having divers escort them out through the extremely narrow and water-filled tunnels.

The ups and downs of the rescue bid have entranced Thailand and also fixated a global audience, drawing support from celebrities as varied as US President Donald Trump, football star Lionel Messi and tech guru Elon Musk.

The emergence of the second batch of four boys on Monday evening was greeted with a simple “Hooyah” by the SEAL team on their Facebook page, an exclamation that lit up Thai social media.

Positive medical reports on the rescued group further fuelled the sense of joy and optimism.

“All eight are in good health, no fever... everyone is in a good mental state,” Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, permanent secretary of the public health ministry, said at Chiang Rai hospital where the boys were recuperating on Tuesday morning.

By Tuesday night, there was jubilation that all the five left trapped in the Thai cave had brought out and on their way to the hospital.