New video shows Thai cave boys in ‘good health’
Thailand’s navy released new video footage of the teenage Thai football team found alive in a cave nine days after they went missing, as rescuers prepared for the difficult task to extract the 12 and their coach.
Footage posted on Facebook yesterday morning showed the team members.
The boys and their coach introduce themselves with the camera showing a Thai Navy Seal with them.
They smiled and interacted with the soldier. Most were wrapped in foil blankets.
The minute-long video was recorded on Tuesday.
The group entered the cave in northern Thailand on June 23 before flooding cut off the entrance. Rescuers are studying how to extract them safely.
Pictures also showed the soldier treating minor cuts on the boys’ feet and legs. A number of them are seen smiling. Others are seen sleeping.
The Thai official overseeing the rescue operation said the boys have been practising wearing diving masks.
Officials said that teaching the boys and their coach to dive might be the only way to get them out of the cave, but other options were being explored.
Chiang Rai provincial Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said that while the team had been practising with masks, he did not believe they had attempted any practice dives. It was not known when an extraction would begin, he said.
Much-needed food and medical supplies reached the boys on Tuesday. The Thai military said it was providing months’ worth of food and diving lessons to help them out of the flooded Tham Luang network in the country’s north.
“[We will] prepare to send additional food, to be sustained for four months, and train all 13 to dive while continuing to drain the water,” Navy Captain Anand Surawan said.