SCORE FOUR MORE!
Rescuers lead another group of boys out of cave — now 5 people left
Rescuers extracted four more boys from a flooded cave in northern Thailand on Monday, leaving four children and their 25-year-old soccer coach still trapped as officials suspended operations for the day.
The official in charge of the rescue, Narongsak Osatanakorn, said the youths were “safe and conscious” and taken to a hospital.
Eight of the 12 boys have now been brought out of the cave system by divers. On Sunday, the first group of four boys were escorted through about 2.5 miles of dark and winding passages filled with muddy water.
Narongsak said Monday he wasn’t sure if the remaining five people will be brought out in one or more operations.
It has been more than two weeks since the boys, members of a school soccer team, and their coach became trapped in the cave June 23.
Monday’s rescue effort took nine hours — two less than Sunday’s operation — as Thai Navy SEALs and international diving experts have been helped by the experience they’ve accumulated since the
boys were found last week, Narongsak said.
The rescuers are under intense pressure to extract the remaining boys and the coach as soon as possible with thunderstorms expected throughout the week.
Narongsak said earlier that the strongest boys would come out first, and added Monday that the boys were asking for fried rice as they received treatment.
After Monday's rescue, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited the eight emaciated-looking boys in the hospital.
The boys' families were being kept at a distance because of fears of infection. The names of the rescued youths were not released.
Authorities had forecast the total rescue operation could take three or four days.
The chances that monsoon rains will pour more water into the cave are never far from rescuers' thoughts.
Maj. Gen. Bancha Duriyapan, the regional army commander, offered his thanks Monday to the Thai rain god Phra Pirun, and implored him to “keep showing us mercy.”
“I beg Phra Pirun because the Meteorological Department said that from Monday on there will be continuous rain,” Bancha said.
"If I ask too much, he might not provide it,” Bancha said of his request to Phra Pirun. “So I've been asking for three days.”
That should be all the time rescuers need to extract the remaining members of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach, he said.
“Give us three more days and the Boars will come out to see the world, every one of them,” Duriyapan said.
The preparations for each rescue operation — which require replacing oxygen cylinders positioned on the 2.5mile escape route — take at least 20 hours, said Narongsak.