Rescue Workers Struggle Day and Night in Search of Students Missing in Chiang Rai’s Tham Luang Cave

CHIANG RAI – Maj Gen Suppachok Thawatpeerachai, the deputy commander of the Army Third Region, told a press briefing that rescue teams continued to drain water out of Tham Luang cave throughout the night and are encouraged by the receding water level as the search for the 12 young footballers and their coach trapped inside the Tham Luang cave.

Divers have made progress as they venture deeper into Tham Luang to locate 12 young footballers and their coach stranded somewhere in the flooded, labyrinthine cave since last Saturday.

A Navy SEAL team yesterday was able to land at an area known as chamber 3, from where it hopes to advance further to the so-called Pattaya Beach, where the missing 13 are believed to be taking refuge. The search is now in its second week.

Rear Adm Arpakorn Yookongkaew said the chamber is roughly half way along the two-kilometre-long distance from the mouth of Tham Luang to a T-junction. From there, divers will swim left toward an area of high ground known as Pattaya Beach, where the missing children may be sheltering from the water flooding into the cave.

Oxygen tanks have been transported into the cave to provide emergency respiration to the 13 people when they are located. The Navy Seal unit said on Saturday that compressed air tanks are being installed at 25-metre intervals forward of the third chamber to supply air to divers.

The commander said the SEAL divers will also drag along with them a phone cable to establish a communication line with the command centre. “Whatever we do, safety is our first priority,” he said and vowed not to stop the rescue mission “until all are found.”

Chiang Rai governor Narongchai Osotthanakorn said rescuers made progress on Sunday thanks to a break in the rain, calling it one of the best days since the mission began. “Weather conditions are being friendly to us,” the governor said in the briefing.

Rescuers are still combing the mountain above the cave in search of fissures that could provide an alternate access point to the cave from above — but so far, none of the shafts have led anywhere.

“We never ignore any suggestions we’re given about the location of shafts. Every hole that seems to point downwards we explore every one,” Maj Gen Suppachok said.