A youth football team and their assistant coach, who went missing in a Thai cave complex over a week ago, were found “safe” on Monday in a miracle rescue after days of painstaking searching by divers.
Rescue teams found the 12 missing boys and their assistant coach inside a cave, showing “signs of life” nine days after they went missing, Chiang Rai province’s governor said.
“Thai Navy seals have found all 13 with signs of life,” Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters, who broke into spontaneous applause and cheering.
There had been no contact with the boys, aged between 11 and 16, since they went missing with their coach -- aged 25 -- last Saturday.
The massive rescue effort had been hampered by heavy rains that flooded the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand, blocking access to chambers where it was hoped the group would be found alive.
Osottanakorn broke the news of their rescue, delighting a nation which has anxiously followed every twist and turn of the effort to save them.
“We will take care of them until they can move," he added. "We will bring food to them and a doctor who can dive. I am not sure they can eat as they have not eaten for a while."
Divers took advantage of a brief window of good weather on Monday to edge further into the cave, with the water levels dropping slowly but steadily every hour thanks to round-the-clock pumping.
They had hoped to find the "Wild Boar" team on an elevated ledge dubbed "Pattaya beach".
But the boys had retreated 300-400 meters further as the ledge was submerged, Narongsak added.
The team's travails are not over with a complex operation predicted to try to free the ailing group from the cave -- which is still partially submerged.
Scores of divers -- including foreign experts -- have been sent into the cave with hundreds of oxygen tanks, establishing a base camp inside the chambers over the weekend.
Weary relatives have camped out at the cave's entrance for more than a week, desperately waiting for news of the boys, while the head of the Buddhist clergy has urged prayers from a nation fixated on the fate of the group.
The Prime Minister's Office said Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha "wishes to thank the tremendous efforts of all international units that have come to assist the Thai authorities in rescuing the football team. The Royal Thai Government and the Thai people are grateful for this support and cooperation, and we all wish the team a safe and speedy recovery."
The football team went into the cave on June 23 after a training session and became stranded when heavy rains cut them off from the entrance.
Rescuers found their bicycles, football boots and backpacks near the cave's entrance and discovered handprints and footprints further in.
At 10 kilometers long, Tham Luang cave is one of Thailand's longest and one of the toughest to navigate, with its snaking chambers and narrow passageways.
A sign outside the site warns visitors not to enter the cave during the rainy season between July and November.
A leading American cave rescue expert said many challenges are ahead for rescue divers in Thailand.
Anmar Mirza, the US National Cave Rescue Commission coordinator, explained that the primary decision is now one of whether to try to evacuate them or to supply them in place.
He said: “Supplying them on site may face challenges depending on how difficult the dives are. Trying to take non-divers through a cave is one of the most dangerous situations possible, even if the dives are relatively easy."
He added that "if the dives are difficult then supply will be difficult, but the risk of trying to dive them out is also exponentially greater."
