Image copyright AFP Image caption Navy divers have been sent in to help look for the missing teenagers

Thailand's deputy PM has said he is optimistic a group of young footballers trapped inside a cave are still alive, as the search enters a third day.

The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their coach entered the cave in Chiang Rai province on Saturday.

Navy divers resumed their efforts on Tuesday after rising waters had halted the search.

They had reportedly seen fresh footprints inside the cave complex, raising hopes for the group's safety.

"We are still optimistic they are all alive," Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said on Tuesday.

"Even though they may not have anything to eat, they should have water to drink."

Image copyright EPA Image caption The cave in northern Thailand extends for more than 6km (3.7 miles) underground

The Tham Luang Nang Non cave is a tourist attraction which runs for many kilometres underground.

The boys and their 25-year-old coach are thought to be in a chamber of the extensive cave network.

Desperate relatives have been camping out at the cave, which lies near the border with Myanmar, holding a prayer ceremony for their safe return.

"My child, I'm here to get you now," one crying parent said, according to AFP.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption There is real concern for the footballers and their coach

'Families praying'

Jonathan Head, BBC News, Tham Luang

Navy divers have been trying to reach the deepest caverns, and turning the area around the caves into a sea of mud. Weary, rain-soaked rescuers can be seen coming to and from the cave entrance, where medical teams are waiting, in the hope that the missing boys may be found.

Family members pray around makeshift shrines.

They have brought in pumps to try to reduce the water level, but so far have only been able to use them outside the caves, where their efforts are being thwarted by the rain. They are now reeling power cables into the caves to help the divers with better light, and to use the pumps there. They have also tried using drones.

So far the only sign of the missing boys is the bicycles they left, which are still locked to the fence at the cave entrance, and some handprints spotted by divers who reached one of the largest underground chambers on Monday.

How was the team trapped?

The team and their coach are believed to have entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave on Saturday afternoon.

Rescue workers began searching for them on Saturday night after they were reported missing. The search was briefly halted but navy divers were able to re-enter the cave early Tuesday.

Large squads of soldiers have been brought in to see if they can get access from the hills above the caves.

There are also dozens of volunteers with more experience of cave diving and exploration.

According to the Bangkok Post, visitors must cross a small stream to enter the cave, making it inaccessible if the stream floods.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Search efforts have been hindered by lack of visibility inside the cave

The cave can flood up to 5m (16ft) during Thailand's rainy season, which runs from June to October.

Rescue teams were preparing to train the team to use scuba gear, in case they had to dive out through areas of the cave which were completely submerged, according to local officials.</s>Thai authorities on Tuesday are continuing their search and rescue efforts to find 12 children and an adult trapped inside a cave in northern Thailand since Saturday.

Bicycles, footwear and other belongings of the missing were found at the Tham Luang cave entrance, in the northern province of Chiang Rai.</s>BANGKOK: A dramatic underwater rescue mission to find a children´s football team who have been trapped in a flooded cave for two days was under way in northern Thailand, officials said Monday.

Divers have reached a large chamber of the vast cave inside which the 12 boys and their coach are believed to be stuck, said the deputy governor of Chiang Rai province.

"We think they are in this part of the cave, which continues for another three kilometres," Pasakorn Boonyalug said. "They haven´t eaten anything since Saturday, so we have brought them food and drink," he added.

The children aged between 11 and 16 entered Tham Luang cave, in a national park near the Myanmar and Laos borders, with their coach on Saturday. One of their mothers raised the alarm when her son did not return from football training that evening.</s>BANGKOK: A dramatic underwater rescue mission to find a children’s football team who have been trapped in a flooded cave for two days was underway in northern Thailand, officials said Monday.

Divers have reached a large chamber of the vast cave inside which the 12 boys and their coach are believed to be stuck, said the deputy governor of Chiang Rai province.

“We think they are in this part of the cave, which continues for another three kilometres (two miles),” Pasakorn Boonyalug said.

“They haven’t eaten anything since Saturday, so we have brought them food and drink,” he added.

The children aged between 11 and 16 entered Tham Luang cave, in a national park near the Myanmar and Laos borders, with their coach on Saturday.

One of their mothers raised the alarm when her son did not return from football training that evening.

Heavy monsoon rains have hit the region in recent days, causing the cave to rapidly fill with water, and bicycles and shoes belonging to the boys were found soon afterwards at the cave’s entrance.

The rescue operation started on Saturday night but was suspended overnight, during which time water levels inside the cave rose dramatically, requiring divers to pass through muddy and flooded sections of the cave.

Diving equipment has been prepared to facilitate the children’s evacuation, Pasakorn said.—AFP</s>Efforts to rescue 12 boys and their football coach trapped in a cave in Thailand are being hampered by heavy rainfall.

Muddy water rising to the ceiling of one of the chambers has prevented divers from progressing farther into the cave to where they think the young footballers and their coach, who went missing on Saturday, may be sheltering.

There has been no contact with the group since they entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province.

At the entrance to the cave, officials were bringing in large water hoses and more water pumps. Navy divers who have been working their way through the complex said that water levels were rising in some places at a rate of 15 centimeters per hour early on Wednesday.

Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said: "We tried to pump the water (out of the chamber) but the water keeps rising. That means the water that comes in with the rain is still much more than what we can pump out. So we need to pump the water faster."

He said teams continued to look for another way in to the blocked portions of the cave by searching for any shafts that might be accessible on the surface of the mountain, under which the cave sits.

Two fissures were found on Tuesday but proved to be dead ends. The rescuers were exploring another one found on Wednesday morning.

Despite setbacks, officials remained publicly optimistic about the prospects for a successful rescue.

"We still have hope. All agencies are trying their best. We have a challenge from the water level that keep rising," Thai army chief General Chalermchai Sittisart told reporters at the site. "We are adding more pumps to lower the level down so that the Seal team could operate better."

He added that all agencies were working hard, "rotating 24 hours so that we can have a success in this operation".

Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda told reporters earlier that the divers could proceed only when enough water is pumped out so there is space between the water and the ceiling to make it safer to work. The divers will also soon start using special oxygen tanks that provide longer diving times, he said.

A diver said the water is so murky that even with lights they cannot see where they are going underwater, so they need to be able to lift their heads above the water.

The boys aged 11-16 have been missing since their 25-year-old coach took them to the cave complex on Saturday after a practice match.

Authorities have said footprints and handprints were found inside the cave complex, as well as other items thought to belong to the boys. They noted that tourists trapped there by past floods have been rescued after the waters receded.

The cave, cut into a mountainside near the border with Burma, can flood severely during the rainy season, which runs from June to October.</s>Rescuers have resumed efforts to locate 12 boys and their soccer coach, who are missing in an extensive cave network in northern Thailand and are feared cut off by rising water levels.

About a dozen Thai navy SEAL divers re-entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province Tuesday morning, the Associated Press reports. Rescue efforts were hampered by extensive flooding in a chamber deep in the cave Monday and were temporarily halted.

The boys, aged between 11 and 15, and their 25-year-old coach are believed to be alive but have been trapped in the cave for three nights. Bicycles, backpacks and soccer kit were found at the entrance of the cave.

“We hope that the water level has gone down but we will have to see,” Navy Lt. Naponwath Homsai said Tuesday. “Today we will try to find passages which are under the water that hopefully will lead to other chambers.”

Here’s what to know:

A group of 12 boys and their soccer coach are thought to have entered a cave in Thailand’s northern Chiang Rai province on Saturday afternoon, the Associated Press reports. After one of the boys did not return from soccer practice, his mother alerted the authorities, prompting the search effort.

 



According to rescue officials, heavy rain this week has caused parts of the cave to fill with as much as 5m (16 ft.) of water. Police found footprints and handprints inside the complex, and other hikers cut off by floodwaters have been rescued from safe, higher ground inside the cave in the past, authorities said. “We’re confident that the kids should still be in good condition,” Chiang Rai Deputy Governor Passakorn Bunyalak said Monday.

Venturing deeper into the cave will add more challenges to the rescue effort. Divers might need to teach the trapped boys basic scuba skills and bring them food supplies, or the boys may have to wait until the flood waters recede, Passakorn said.

Where are they?

The boys and their coach, members of the Moo Paa (Wild Boar) Academy football club, are believed to be trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave, a 6-8 km (4-5 mi) long cavern that is comprised of large chambers connected by narrower passageways. The cave is a tourist attraction that’s located close to the Myanmar border. According to a guidebook on the region’s caves, Tham Luang Nang Non is only passable between November and June due to flooding during Thailand’s rainy season.

After rescuers were forced to pause Monday due to flooding, efforts resumed early Tuesday, with a team of Thai navy SEALS and other rescuers re-entering the partly-flooded cave. Before efforts were halted Monday, search teams found bags and shoes in a second chamber behind the cave entrance, raising hopes that the team is deeper yet in the complex. Overnight, electricians installed a power line 1 km (.6 mi) into the cave to support the divers with electric lights and fans Tuesday. Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn said the line would also allow them to install engines to pump out some of the floodwater. Family and supporters have gathered outside the cave for the past three days, waiting for news and holding prayer sessions. Some performed a traditional ritual Tuesday morning to call for those who are missing. “I haven’t slept and I hope that all of them can come out, all safe and sound,” said Namhom Boonpiam, whose 13-year-old son Mongkol is missing. “My son is a strong boy. I still have hope.”</s>BANGKOK - Search and rescue teams in Thailand were looking on Monday for 13 members of an under-16 football team trapped in a flooded cave complex deep inside a mountain.

The boys' bicycles and football boots were found at the mouth of the Tham Luang caves, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, after they went missing late on Saturday.

They were believed to have been trapped by rising waters inside the cave network when heavy rain hit.

Members of a navy "seal" unit including a team of divers, are searching the cave system.

"The team went down to a depth of 5 meters (16 feet) and found a large chamber ... but we've found no trace of the children," the navy unit said on its Facebook page.

A navy commander overseeing the search said he was hopeful the 12 twelve boys and their 20-year-old coach would be rescued.

"I believe they're all still alive but they might be exhausted ... we should get good news today," Rear Admiral Arparkorn Yookongkaew told Reuters.

People wanting to explore the cave are meant to get permission. Thailand is in the middle of its rainy season when caves can flood.</s>What should have been the time of their lives, exploring a cave known for its stalactites and stalagmites, has turned into a nightmare for teenage soccer players and their coach, reports CNN. The Bangkok Post reports there were 11 teen players, while CNN reports 12, who entered the cave, located in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. A search is underway to find the group after they “crawled into the Tham Luang Nang Non Cave through a narrow 15-meter long channel” and the cave flooded. They have been missing since Saturday. It appears that the rising water blocked their path out of the cave, a path that was only wide enough for one person to pass through at a given time, and therefore the group may be trapped inside the cave network, according to Kamolchai Kotcha, an official with Thailand’s national parks authority, who spoke with CNN.

“We have been working almost 24 hours but there are many limitations, the caves are pitch dark and very low level of oxygen in some areas, and scattering rains just made our task more difficult,” said Kotcha. That search team consists of local police and park officials as well as 17 members of the SEAL diving team from the Royal Thai Navy. On Monday morning, those divers entered the cave to search for the soccer team.

Officials have already had two attempts to rescue the group fail, and continued light rain, making the water levels rise, has been an ongoing issue in trying to find the group who has been missing since 1 p.m. ET local time on Saturday. When the creek’s water level rises, it can cause run-off into the cave, and when that happens, the cave is closed. Despite the cave being off-limits, a park officer realized something was wrong when he saw a motorcycle and 11 bicycles sitting along a railing by the entrance to the deep cave, along with a pair of soccer shoes and some backpacks as well as other sporting equipment, reports the Bangkok Post.

“The players usually practice at the football field in Ban Pong Pha every weekend. On Saturday, after training, witnesses saw the coach and the football players enter the cave.” Park officials ventured into the cave to search for the group, going as far as three kilometers, but when heavy rains threatened to close off their exit from the cave, they had to abandon their search. Now that they have the divers from the Royal Thai Navy, the search is ongoing.</s>Divers Search Flooded Cave In Thailand For 12 Missing Boys And Their Soccer Coach

Rescue crews have been frantically searching for 12 boys and their soccer coach in a sprawling cave complex in northern Thailand that flooded after heavy rains. Despite two days and numerous setbacks, Thai officials believe they are still alive.

The boys and their coach were thought to have entered the cave complex in Chiang Rai province on Saturday afternoon.

They typically train every weekend on a nearby field. But when one of the boys didn't return from soccer practice that day, his mother notified authorities and the search began, according to media reports.

At the mouth of Tham Luang Nang Non cave, located in a verdant forest reserve that borders Myanmar, park officials found every indication that the boys and coach entered the cave but never came out: a motorcycle, 11 bicycles, backpacks, soccer shoes and sports equipment, The Bangkok Post reported.

Officials confirmed with the head of a local football team that the items belonged to the 25-year-old coach and players, who reportedly range in age from 11 to 16.

"We've found traces but no people yet," Chote Narin, an officer at Mae Sai district police station, said Monday afternoon, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

But authorities are holding out hope. Rescuers found footprints and handprints inside the cave, fueling hopes that the boys are still alive, Narin said, according to the AP. He added that their athleticism could help them survive the ordeal.

Heavy rains, rising water levels and darkness in the depths of the cave have prolonged the search for the missing soccer team and coach. Officials are concerned that rainfall could trigger a flash flood inside the Tham Luang cave because a stream winds through portions of the complex.

Park officials previously turned back from a search after heavy rain threatened to block their exit, the Post reported.

Authorities then turned to Royal Thai Navy SEAL divers to enter the complex's deepest chambers, where officials believe the group may be trapped.

Divers entered the cave early Monday morning, swimming in depths of murky water as deep as 16 feet. They tried unsuccessfully to get to a chamber more than 2 miles into the cave, according to the AP.

The navy unit posted on Facebook, as translated by Google: "16.00 Rain drops, the water level in the cave higher. ... But no children."

Sand, mud and flooding prevented the divers from accessing the passage to the chamber, a park official said. The divers' search was suspended in the evening and was expected to resume Tuesday morning.

Helicopters have also been deployed by Border Patrol Police and were searching for other entrances to the cave, according to the Post. A spokesman for the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation told the newspaper that the cave's only main entrance had been closed to visitors because of the rainy season.

Authorities have also asked nervous villagers to stop burning incense at the entrance of the cave out of concern that it could deplete oxygen inside, The New York Times reported.

The search has dominated Thai airwaves, and even King Maha Vajiralongkorn has followed developments and expressed wishes for the safety of the group.

Kamonchai Kotcha, director of the Office of Conserved Area in Chiang Rai, told Thai PBS that a sign at the cave's entrance warns visitors not to enter without permission from park officials.

In the past, tourists have been rescued from flooded caves after the waters receded days later, officials told media outlets.

If the divers find the boys and coach while the water level remains high, they might need to teach them basic scuba skills to help them escape. Officials have considered piling up sandbags to stop more water from entering the cave and using pumps to lower the water level, Thailand's The Nation reported.

"Right now, our family is hoping that the children trapped inside will have formed a group and are safe and waiting for officials to go in and save them in time," the father of one of the missing boys told local media. "That's what I'm hoping."</s>Desperate parents led a prayer ceremony outside a flooded cave in northern Thailand where 12 children have been trapped for days as Navy rescue divers packing food rations resumed their search Tuesday.

Hundreds of people have been mobilised to find the young football team and their coach who went into the cave on Saturday and were trapped when heavy rains are believed to have flooded the cave's main entrance.

Anxious relatives camped out at the cave near the border with Myanmar and Laos praying for the children's safe return.

"My child, I'm here to get you now," one crying parent said, according to footage from local media.

Another wailing mother screamed: "Come home my child!".

The children, aged between 11 and 16, are believed to have retreated further into the cave as monsoon rains fell and flooded the cave, believed to be several kilometres (miles) long.

Park officials, police and soldiers were dispatched on foot, while an aerial team was also being prepped to scour the scene, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.

Navy SEAL divers equipped with oxygen tanks and food rations entered the cave early Tuesday in northern Chiang Rai province, where light rains continued to fall.

"Our team in the area went inside the cave early morning and will continue to walk to the cave's end," Thai Navy SEAL said on its Facebook page.

Information coming out of the area was spotty with cellphone signals blocked inside the cave, and the Navy urged patience from the public as it searched for the children and their coach.

An underwater robot is set to be dispatched later Tuesday to help survey the Tham Luang cave, a popular site among local tourists.

"We will bring the underwater robot to help survey the area to know how big and how deep the cave is to help the diver," said Sawangtit Srikitsuwan, an aerospace and marine engineer at Bangkok's King Mongkut's University of Technology.

Rescuers found bicycles and a motorbike at the entrance of the cave Monday, and divers said they spotted footprints in one of the cave's chambers.

Heavy rains are common in the area during Thailand's monsoon season from May to October, with flooding and landslides routinely reported.
Navy divers attempting to rescue a children's football team and their adult coach after they became trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai, Thailand, on Saturday resume searching after rising waters earlier hampered efforts. They report finding fresh footprints in the cave.