Thai boys are seen in cave of Pattaya beach as rescuers found them alive after 10 days of missing.
CHIANG RAI/ KARACHI (ENNS) As many as 12 boys and their football coach found alive after ten days trapped deep inside a flooded cave will have to bear their ordeal for longer while rescuers work out how to bring them safely out, the governor of Chiang Rai province said.
Divers struggled through narrow passages and murky waters to discover the boys late on Monday night on an elevated rock about four kilometres from the mouth of the cave.
A video shot by rescuers in flickering torchlight revealed boys clad in shorts and red and blue shirts sitting or standing on the rock above an expanse of water.
“How many of you are there — 13? Brilliant,” a member of the multinational rescue team, speaking in English, tell the boys. “You have been here 10 days. You are very strong.” “Thank you,” one of the boys says.
Two British divers, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, were first to reach the boys, having had strong experience in cave rescues, according to Bill Whitehouse, the vice chairman of the British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC).
They found the group along with a team of Thai navy SEAL divers.
Rescuers had been focusing on an elevated mound, which cavers have named “Pattaya Beach”, in the cave complex’s third chamber, knowing that it could have provided the boys with a refuge when rains flooded the cave.
“The SEALs reported that … they reached Pattaya Beach which was flooded. So they went 400 meters further where we found the 13 … who were safe,” Narongsak told the cheering group of reporters.
The boys’ survival was greeted with jubilation nationwide by Thais who have followed every twist of the harrowing story.
