Thailand - First two footballers exit cave, getting medical check-up: military source

An ambulance that is believed to carry the first boy rescued from Tham Luang Cave in Chiang Rai leaves the cave for a hospital

The first two trapped footballers have been safely evacuated out of Tham Luang cave, a military news source has confirmed.

 

The Royal Thai Airforce’s Facebook fanpage “Air Force Media by Kawin AFU” disclosed the good news that two unidentified survivors were successfully brought out of the cave on around 6.10pm, while another survivor had already reached the Navy SEALs’ operation base on the third chamber of the cave.

The two survivors have already been transferred to the field hospital just outside the cave entrance for a medical check-up before being transported by separate ambulances to Chiang Rai Prachanukraw Hospital, the source said. 

An evacuation operation to bring out the 13 footballers in the flooded cave kicked off on Sunday morning, with expectations that the first survivor would exit the front of the cave at around 9pm on Sunday evening.

It normally takes the Navy SEAL divers six hours to travel each way to bring supplies to the trapped footballers.

Source - The Nation 
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Thailand - All Children, Coach Found Alive in Cave

CHIANG RAI — The governor of Chiang Rai announced at about 10:30pm on Monday that Navy SEALS have located all missing youths and and their coach from the cave they went missing in nine days ago.

The news was immediately with cheering as word spread that despite diminishing hopes after a long and difficult rescue operation, all footballers were found inside the Luang Khun Nam Nang Non Cave complex in Chiang Rai tonight.

Rescuers had been pushing toward a chamber where they had pinned their best hopes on the possibility of finding the football team and coach who had vanished inside on a visit sparking a massive rescue effort including the military and teams from the United States, Japan, China, Australia and more

According to a brief press conference held, the immediate plans are to pump water out the cave and transport doctors and nurses to their location according Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn. They will assess the conditions of all 13 – 12 footballers aged 11-16 and their 25-year-old coach – before determining the best course of action to extracting them safely.

Rescue teams recently set up a base camp inside the cave spending days battling mud, flooding and torrents of rain. The rain let up in the last days of the search, which helped lower water levels while drilling wells to help succeeded after days of disappointment.

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 Dozens of shafts found on hills above the cave were also explored to see if some could provide access to the missing 13. Care packages with food, notes, maps and flashlights were dropped through them this last few days in a hope that the boys might found them.

The 12 boys and coach went missing June 23 after football practice. It prompted one of the biggest and most intense search and rescue missions in the nation’s history which saw support pouring in from across the country and the world.

Experts from Myanmar and Laos also joined the effort led by about 1,000 soldiers, rescue workers and volunteers from several government departments and private organizations.

Another news conference will be held at about 3am.

 This is a developing story and will be updated without notice.