CHIANG RAI, Thailand- All 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped for more than two weeks deep inside a flooded Thai cave have been rescued, a Thai navy SEAL unit said on Tuesday, a successful end to a perilous mission that has gripped the world.
"The 12 Wild Boars and coach have emerged from the cave and they are safe," the SEAL unit said on its official Facebook page.
The "Wild Boars" soccer team and their coach got trapped on June 23 while exploring the cave complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai after soccer practice and a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels.
Coach of Thai boys trapped in cave offers apology to parents
British divers found the 13, hungry and huddled in darkness on a muddy bank in a partly flooded chamber several kilometers inside the complex, on Monday last week.
After pondering for days how to get the 13 out, a rescue operation was launched on Sunday when four of the boys were brought out, tethered to rescue divers.
Another four were rescued on Monday and the last four boys and the coach were brought out on Tuesday.
Celebrations will be tinged with sadness over the loss of a former Thai navy diver who died last Friday while on a re-supply mission inside the cave in support of the rescue.
The last five were brought out of the cave on stretchers, one by one over the course of Tuesday, and taken by helicopter to hospital.
Three members of the SEAL unit and an army doctor, who has stayed with the boys since they were found, were the last people due to come out of the cave, the unit said.
Officials have not been commenting on the rescue mission as it has been taking place, so it was not clear what condition those brought out on Tuesday were in.
The eight boys brought out on Sunday and Monday were in good health overall and some asked for chocolate bread for breakfast, officials said earlier.
Two of the boys had suspected lung infections but the four boys from the first group rescued were all walking around in hospital.
Authorities have not confirmed the identity of the rescued boys and some of their parents said they had not been told who had been brought out. They were not allowed to visit the hospital where the boys were taken.
The rescued boys had not been identified out of respect for the families whose sons were still trapped, officials had said.
The boys were still being quarantined from their parents because of the risk of infection and would likely be kept in hospital for a week to undergo tests, officials said earlier on Tuesday.
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MAE SAI, Thailand - The first eight boys rescued from a Thai cave are in good mental and physical health and are asking for chocolate, officials said Tuesday, although two were on antibiotics after being tested for pneumonia.
"Everyone is in a good mental state," Jesada Chokedamrongsuk, permanent secretary of the public health ministry, told reporters at Chiang Rai hospital.
"None of the eight boys has fever today," he added in the clearest update yet on the condition of the boys rescued from Tham Luang cave.
The boys, aged 12-16, were the first to be extracted on Sunday and Monday, while the final four and their coach spent a 17th night inside.
Experts had warned of possible long-lasting damage from the ordeal, either through psychological trauma or infections caught in the cave.
Jesada said the group had been given x-rays and blood tests, adding that two presented suspected symptoms of pneumonia but were given antibiotics and were "in a normal state".
He said the group can eat, move about, and talk.
"They (all the boys) will have to stay in the hospital for one week to wait for their results and to see if anything changes," he said.
Thongchai Lertwilairattanapong, Inspector General of the Public Health Ministry, said the first four boys taken out on Sunday were eating normal and plain food.
"They're asking for chocolate. We can see that everything is ok as they're eating well," he said.
The boys remain in quarantine but some of their parents have been able to see their children through the glass.
Thailand has been riveted by the dramatic rescue mission to save the "Wild Boars" team after they first got trapped in Tham Luang more than two weeks ago by rising floodwaters.
Rescuers are racing to extract the rest of the squad and their coach as heavy rains pick back up in the northern province, threatening to complicate the last phase of the mission by reflooding the cave.
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CHIANG RAI, Thailand - A Thai rescuer died during an operation to save 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped inside a flooded cave complex, the latest setback for a mission fraught with danger as rescue teams brace for more rain that could delay their work.
Samarn Poonan, a former member of Thailand's elite navy SEAL unit who was part of the rescue team in Chiang Rai, died on Thursday night after entering the cave to lay oxygen tanks along a potential exit route, the SEAL commander said.
"The conditions in the cave are tough," Admiral Apakorn Yuukongkaew, commander of the SEALS unit, told reporters on Friday.
"Once he placed the oxygen tanks he became unconscious on his way back. His buddy tried to administer first aid, when there was no response he tried to move him," Apakorn said.
"We won't let his life be in vain. We will carry on".
Volunteers at the Tham Luang cave in northern Chiang Rai province were shaken by Samarn's death.
"A navy SEAL just passed away last night. How about a 12-year-old boy that will have to pass through?" Rafael Aroush, an Israeli living in Thailand and volunteer who arrived at the cave site on Thursday, told Reuters.
"There will be rain and many things could go wrong. I don't want to say it, but it could be a catastrophe," he said.
Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn said on Thursday that rescuers were preparing a five kilometer (three miles) "oxygen pipeline" as part of preparations for the group's extraction but added that the boys would not be coming out soon.
"You see we are increasing the number of people going inside the cave. So we have to fill it up with oxygen," Narongsak told reporters.
Rescuers, including international teams, are considering alternative ways to bring the group out before heavy rains hit the country's north next week which could further hamper the rescue operation.
"We have considered many alternatives to find the most feasible ones," Narongsak said.
DEEP WATER
Rescue alternatives include teaching the boys to dive and then swim out, a highly risky venture, remaining in the cave for months until the wet season ends and flood waters recede, or drilling a shaft into the cave from the forest above.
The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their assistant coach were found inside the cave on Monday, after nine days underground, hungry but in good spirits. They went missing after they set out to explore the cave on June 23.
Rescuers are deciding how to remove the group but have been slowed down by logistical issues including high water levels inside the cave and narrow, flooded passages which would require the boys to dive alone.
The Thai navy is teaching the boys the basics of diving, with a view to guiding them out through flood waters.
But getting them out won't be easy. The boys will have to be taught how to use scuba diving gear and how to navigate a cave that has frustrated even the most expert divers.
"Regarding the plan for the 13 to swim or dive, there is only one critical point which it is risky: It is where every boy has to dive alone. The point is very narrow ... It is very deep water. The distance is pretty long," said Narongsak.
Some of the boys cannot swim.
But rescuers are considering other options including keeping the 13 inside the Tham Luang cave until the flood waters recede, at the end of the rainy season in about four months.
Others say the boys could be out in days if the weather is on their side and enough water can be pumped out of the cave to enable the boys to get out the same way they got in, on foot, perhaps with some swimming.
Another possibility would be to find an alternative way into their chamber, such as drilling a shaft into the cave from the forested mountain above.
Heavy monsoon rains are forecast for next week in most of the north, according to Thailand's meteorological department.
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MAE SAI, Thailand - Desperate parents led a prayer ceremony outside a flooded cave in northern Thailand where 12 children have been trapped for days as Navy rescue divers packing food rations resumed their search Tuesday.
Hundreds of people have been mobilized to find the young football team and their coach who went into the cave on Saturday and were trapped when heavy rains are believed to have flooded the cave's main entrance.
Anxious relatives camped out at the cave near the border with Myanmar and Laos praying for the children's safe return.
"My child, I'm here to get you now," one crying parent said, according to footage from local media.
Another wailing mother screamed: "Come home my child!".
The children, aged between 11 and 16, are believed to have retreated further into the cave as monsoon rains fell and flooded the cave, believed to be several kilometers (miles) long.
Park officials, police and soldiers were dispatched on foot, while an aerial team was also being prepped to scour the scene, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
Navy SEAL divers equipped with oxygen tanks and food rations entered the cave early Tuesday in northern Chiang Rai province, where light rains continued to fall.
"Our team in the area went inside the cave early morning and will continue to walk to the cave's end," Thai Navy SEAL said on its Facebook page.
Information coming out of the area was spotty with cellphone signals blocked inside the cave, and the Navy urged patience from the public as it searched for the children and their coach.
An underwater robot is set to be dispatched later Tuesday to help survey the Tham Luang cave, a popular site among local tourists.
"We will bring the underwater robot to help survey the area to know how big and how deep the cave is to help the diver," said Sawangtit Srikitsuwan, an aerospace and marine engineer at Bangkok's King Mongkut's University of Technology.
Rescuers found bicycles and a motorbike at the entrance of the cave Monday, and divers said they spotted footprints in one of the cave's chambers.
Heavy rains are common in the area during Thailand's monsoon season from May to October, with flooding and landslides routinely reported.
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