Outstanding Bravery

Divers who risked their lives to rescue 12 Thai boys and their football coach from a treacherous cave in Thailand

WHEN young members of a Thai football team were trapped deep in flooded caves, hope was fading fast.

The team, the Wild Boars, had gone exploring in the caves after training. As heavy rain started to fall, they retreated further into the 10km complex.

Search teams scoured the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Thailand without success. Soon, rising water made it too difficult to navigate.

Expert British cave divers John Volanthen, Jason Mallinson, Rick Stanton, Chris Jewell, Josh Bratchley and Connor Roe flew to Thailand to join the search effort.

Many feared the boys must be dead but two of the team found them perched on a ledge in an air pocket beneath millions of tons of rock.

On July 8, the team dived into the cavern, and started their painstaking rescue mission. Over the next two days, they rescued the boys one by one in tunnels as narrow as 30cm.

People around the globe breathed a sigh of relief as the boys were reunited with their families. But the divers remained modest.

One of them, Rick Volanthen, said: “Are we heroes? No, we were just using a very unique skill set we normally use for our own interests to give something back to the community.”