Chiang Rai News
Four More Boys Extracted from Tham Luang Cave Bringing Total Number Rescued to Eight.
CHIANG RAI – Foreign and Navy Seal divers have brought out another 4 boys from the flooded Tham Luang cave, where the 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped for more than two weeks, taking the total number of rescued to eight.
They are the second batch to undertake the perilous journey out of Tham Luang cave in Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai. The first four were successfully evacuated and taken to Chiangrai Prachanukroh Hospital in Muang district on Sunday.
Divers took about four hours to escort the four from the ledge to the chamber, the source added.
Due to fast moving floodwaters, darkness, and the need to use several tanks of oxygen, the operation’s divers require about 11 hours for a single round trip journey to the cave. – Nation Graphics
The evacuation procedure calls for the boys to receive initial medical treatment there before rescuers take them through the remaining stretch of the cave to a field hospital outside, and then transport them by helicopter or ambulance to join their colleagues at the hospital.
Rescue mission chief Narongsak Osotthanakorn on Monday said the operation on the second day started at 11am.
There are still four more young footballers and the coach left to be extracted by divers at Tham Luang cave.
The thirteen were trapped by floodwater after entering the cave on June 23, and forced deeper and deeper inside the labyrinthine of tunnels.
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand’s elite Navy SEAL unit make up the main team guiding the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways.
Narongsak said that the “same multinational team” that went into the cave on Sunday to retrieve the first four boys was deployed on Monday.
Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda told reporters the four boys rescued on Sunday were in good health in hospital but did not give details. There was no word on the condition of any of the boys brought out on Monday.
