As the world holds its breath, 12 boys and their soccer coach – accompanied by an elite team of rescue divers – are making a treacherous journey to safety through flooded underground caverns that have tested some of the world’s best cavers.
Four boys have so far completed the hazardous escape, according to rescue officials, and are receiving medical treatment. Efforts to bring the remaining eight boys and their adult coach to the surface will resume on Monday morning.
The boys were each being led by two divers as they wind 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) through pitch darkness, trudge through thick mud, clamber over slippery jagged rocks and dive through narrow passageways swirling with cold, strong currents.
“It’s dangerous to the most experienced divers to go through,” said one diver who spoke to Reuters. “It’s pretty scary.”
The cave system, in a limestone mountain range bordering Myanmar in northern Thailand, has proven to be a formidable challenge for the international rescue coalition drawing some of the world’s best divers who have volunteered to help in the operation alongside Thai Navy SEALs.
The boys, aged between 11 and 16, went missing with their 25-year-old coach after soccer practice on June 23, setting out on an adventure to explore the cave complex, reportedly for a picnic to celebrate one of their birthdays, before being trapped by rising waters from bursts of monsoon rain.