Tham Luang Cave, the most renowned cave in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai Province, has experienced its most severe flooding in 13 years. The mountain range was inundated with torrential rain, with 263mm recorded yesterday.

Vernon Unsworth, a British cave explorer who has lived in the Mae Sai district with his Thai wife for over a decade, inspected the Tham Luang cave today.

Unsworth said that based on his six-year exploration of the cave, he stated that the water gushing from the cave’s entrance is more powerful than a waterfall, suggesting that all chambers are submerged.

Tham Luang Cave, mae sai

He also noted that it is fortunate that no one was present in the cave, as it is closed to all visitors until the end of the month.

According to Petcharat Suksamran, a Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non-National Park official, the situation in the Tham Luang Cave is critical. He also stated that a strong current of reddish water is continuously erupting from the entrance.

In June and July 2018, Tham Luang garnered global attention as a result of an international search and rescue operation that was initiated to rescue the 12 members of a football team and their coach who had been stranded in a flooded cave for more than a fortnight. They were all securely extracted from the cave on July 10.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has issued an advisory for tourists visiting national parks during the rainy season. The advisory advises them to adhere to the parks’ rules, be aware of mountainous routes for their safety, check weather forecasts, research information about the parks they intend to visit and immediately seek higher ground if water conditions change in a stream.