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By David E. Hubler
Contributor, EDM Digest
The 12 boys and their assistant soccer coach, missing in a cave in Thailand since June 23, were found alive late Monday evening Bangkok time, the BBC reported.
“All of them are safe,” Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn confirmed. “They were discovered by naval special forces,” he told the BBC. Osottanakorn has been overseeing a search-and-rescue operation that has involved more than 1,000 rescuers, including 30 members of the U.S. Pacific Command.
Challenge Now Will Be to Extract the Soccer Team Safely
“The challenge now will be to extract the party safely, with rising water and mud impeding access,” Osottanakorn added. “Our mission is to search, rescue and return. So far, we just found them. Next mission is to bring them out from the cave and send them home.”
The Bangkok Post said that rescuers were planning late Monday night to get them out of Tham Luang cave. “Photos sent from the forward rescue team showed the boys smiling for the camera, looking none the worse for wear after their 10-day ordeal.”
“Another round of hard work now begins to extract them from the flooded and cramped cave,” the Post added.
According to Governor Osottanokorn, rescuers would continue to drain water from the cave and then send in doctors and nurses to check the health of the soccer team and the coach. “If the doctors say their physical condition is strong enough to be moved, they will take them out from the cave,” Osottanakorn explained.
Soon after the boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach entered the cave to explore, heavy rains trapped them and then hindered the search.
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