FOUND ALIVE!
After NINE days lost in flooded caves, jubilation as 12 Thai boys discovered by British rescuers
FOR nine days, 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in a flooded cave while a frantic search continued and their relatives staged an increasingly desperate vigil.
But last night the missing group was finally found alive in a treacherous labyrinth in northern Thailand – after being sighted by pair of British divers.
The discovery brought elation as a complex rescue operation began to the bring boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their coach, 25, out from the winding, waterlogged tunnels.
The two British rescuers are believed to be Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, who arrived early last week to join the rescue.
Photographs from the scene showed joyful relatives looking at a picture on an iPad taken by one of the rescue divers showing four of the boys smiling and looking in good health.
Family members of the missing wept with relief and hugged each other as they and the rescue team cheered the news.
Tinnakorn Boonpiem, whose 12-year-old son Mongkol is among the 13, said: ‘I’m so glad... I want to him to be physically and mentally fit.’ Aisha Wiboonrungrueng, the mother of one of the boys, 11-year-old Chanin, said she would cook her son a Thai fried omelette, his favourite food, when he returns home.
Another relative of one of one of the group, with tears of joy streaming down his cheeks, said: ‘I’m so happy I can’t put it into words.’
The governor of Chang Rai province Narongsak Osottanakorn said Thai special forces had found the missing group in the six-milelong Tham Luang Nang Non cave. He said: ‘I confirm they are all safe. But the work is far from over – we still have to get them out.’ The group, from the Wild Boar soccer team, have been missing since cycling to the cave complex with their coach, Ekkapol Janthawong, on June 23 after a training session. They became stranded in pitchblack tunnels by a flash flood, prompting a round- the- clock search involving military divers, heat-seeking drones and an underwater robot.
Relatives have kept up a vigil under a tent not far from the cave’s flooded entrance, near the Burma and Laos borders. Buddhist monks have led prayers for the boys’ safety.
Divers had been stymied repeatedly by rising water that forced them to withdraw. When water levels fell on Sunday, the divers were able to adopt a more methodical approach, deploying a rope line and extra oxygen supplies.
One team had even drilled a hole in the side of the hill to create a new passageway into the cavern.
Earlier yesterday divers took advantage of a brief window of good weather to edge further into the cave, with the water levels dropping slowly every hour thanks to round-the-clock pumping.
Then, in the dead of night last night, came the shout: ‘We’ve found them – all 13!’
Officials described the first sighting of the group after a rescue team had managed to make their way up through muddy, gushing water. Torchlight picked them out, on a rocky platform where they had been huddled day after day. ‘Fortunately they had not attempted to get into the water to try to make their way out,’ said one official. ‘That could have been disastrous.’
It had taken a naval special forces team to reach the boys.
A Facebook video posed by the Thai navy group revealed the first moments after the dramatic discovery. ‘ How many of you?’ the rescuer, who appeared to be English, asked. ‘Thirteen!’ came the reply. ‘Thirteen? Brilliant!’
The voice the group heard was believed to be that of Mr Volanthen. The Britons had joined divers and climbers from the US, Germany, China and the Philippines. With them was a radio system that can transmit messages for hundreds of yards through solid rock.
Mr Stanton and Mr Volanthen are global experts in exploring underground systems and were sent ‘because they are the best’ for the job. They are believed to have been accompanied by a third diver Robert Harper and were provided with equipment from Derbyshire Cave Rescue.
The governor said the plan was to drain all the water from the area before attempting to move the 13. ‘We’re now planning how to send a nurse and doctor inside to check on their health and movement.’
Doctors believe that having been crouched on a ledge for days the boys might have difficulty moving their limbs. ‘We have to go slowly, carefully, so there is much work left to do,’ said one official.
Details have yet to emerge on whether the group had taken food in with them.
Last night, Belgian diving instructor Ben Reymenants, who is helping with the operation, told the BBC: ‘They’re expecting heavy rains within three days. If the cave system just floods that will make the access impossible to the kids.
‘There’s two volunteer Navy Seal doctors that have actually sacrificed themselves to stay with the kids up to three to four months until the water resides.
‘Now the real hard work comes, how to get these kids out. None of them can swim or dive so that’s going to be a real challenge.’