"So at this point, you know, I think they would be better off bringing in food, water, filtration systems, oxygen if the air space needs it and requires it, and at least they have lights and hope now, so I think waiting it out, as long as they can get supplies in there to make them comfortable and warm and fed and hydrated."<doc-sep>Twelve boys and their soccer coach were found alive in cave in Thailand. Twelve boys and their soccer coach, lost for 10 days in a cave in Thailand, have been found alive, officials announced Monday. "Thai Navy SEALs have found all 13 with signs of life," Narongsak Osottanakorn, the governor of the Chiang Rai province, told reporters. Rescuers are now working to extract the team from the cave. The Thai Navy SEALs posted a video on Facebook showing the group when they were first found. The boys appeared to be in good health and were talking, asking what day it was and being told by rescuers that more help was on the way. "I am very happy," one of the boys said in English. "Thank you so much." A British diver on the SEAL team told the group, "You have been here 10 days. You are very strong." One of the boys asked him, "What time do we go outside?" The diver responded, "No, not today, not today. There's two of us. You have to dive. We're coming. It's OK. Many people are coming. Many, many people. We're the first. Many people come." The divers provided the group with lights and told them food and medical help were on the way. "Where are you from?" one of the rescued boys asked. The diver answered, "England, the UK." "God bless you," another member of the rescued party was heard saying. When a Thai military official announced the rescue at a base camp near the mouth of the cave, loud cheers went up from the searchers, who had been praying and working feverishly for such an outcome. Aisha Wiboonrungrueng's 11-year-old son, Chanin Wiboonrungrueng, was among rescued. "He would love to eat a fried omelet," the ecstatic mother told reporters. Ben Reymenants, a Belgian diver who is part of an international contingent that had been searching for the soccer team, said he was briefed by an operation commander on the rescue. He said the children and their coach were weak when they were found and that a medic was now with them in the cave, providing medical assistance. Reymenants told ABC News the race is on to safely remove the group from the cave over the next 12 hours before the next rainstorm hits. The miraculous rescue came during a lull in the torrential rains that had hampered the agonizing search. The respite from the rain also gave rescuers confidence to push forward in an area of the subterranean labyrinth they had hoped the boys and their coach were waiting to be saved. Gov. Osottanakorn said the rescuers reached the area known as Pattaya Beach where they thought they would find the lost group. When they arrived the area was flooded. He said the rescuers forged ahead about another 1,000 feet, where they discovered the boys and their coach. "It is another high ground," Osottanakorn said of where the group was located. "We found that our younger brothers are safe." Reymenants said the team was found in the dark and wet underground web of tunnels in the jungle of northern Thailand about a day after rescuers spotted fresh writing on a wall of one of the passageways. "I'm feeling so happy. This is like out of a movie, truthfully," U.S. Air Force Capt. Jessica Tait, a spokeswoman for the 353rd Special Operations Group, told ABC News at the base camp near the entrance to the cave. "I felt elation. I felt so excited," she said of getting the news that the team had been located. The 12 boys, ranging in age from 11 to 16, and their coach went missing after entering the Tham Luang Nang Non cave for an excursion on June 23. Officials believe the team became trapped when monsoon rains flooded passages and blocked their path back to the entrance of the cave where authorities found their bicycles. Rescuers were hoping to find the group in the dryer part of the cave, where nooks, crannies, chambers and tunnels run six miles beneath the rugged mountains near the borders of Myanmar and Laos. Divers had to pull themselves along with rope against powerful currents in the cave's water. The visibility was so poor that one rescuer described it as swimming through coffee. The rescue operation had gripped the attention of Thailand and beyond as people across the region collectively prayed for a miracle in the search that had entered its tenth day on Monday. Crews of geologists working outside the cave have been drilling into the grottos to create potential escape shafts closer to the area where rescuers had hoped to find the wayward party. Crews have also been working above ground to pump flood waters out of the cave to give rescuers better access to search passageways. Before the jubilant announcement of the rescue, officials conceded they were in a desperate race against time and weather. Meteorologists were forecasting a 30 to 40 percent chance of thunderstorms in the northern region of the country on Wednesday. About 1,000 volunteers and rescuers, including a U.S. military team, had established a base camp near the mouth of the cave. Family members of the lost group were also in the area monitoring any news from rescuers and praying at a makeshift shrine. Search teams from China, Japan, Australia and England had also traveled to the area to assist in the rescue operations.<doc-sep>The Thai Navy SEALs released new video of the boys and their soccer coach smiling and covered with space blankets inside a cave in Thailand a day after they were found by rescuers. In the video, a Navy SEAL tells the boys to introduce themselves to their fans, CNN's Anna Coren reported. The boys say "hello" in Thai, then they, along with their coach, introduce themselves by their nicknames. The Navy SEAL also tells the soccer team that the world is watching them. "And it is so true. Not just Thailand, but it is the world," Coren noted. "There is a huge contingent of people here from across the globe that are following every single development, wanting these boys to get out safely." The boys, she said, are ready to get out of the cave. "I think what is pertinent about this video is that they say, 'I am healthy. We are healthy,'" Coren said.<doc-sep>The 12 Thai footballers who have been found alive deep in a cave may have ventured in as part of an initiation, one of the divers who helped locate them has said. The boys, aged 11 – 16, reportedly went into the Luang Nang Non Cave with their 25-year-old coach in an effort to write their names on the walls. They were "wading in and trying to go to the end of the tunnel, sort of like an initiation for local young boys to… write your name on the wall and make it back," Ben Reymenants told Sky News. Recommended Video shows moment missing boys and coach found by diver But after a flash flood caused by heavy rain they were locked into the cave system. Mr Rymenants added that the boys appeared mentally fit and were in a stable condition, but had become weak after 10 days without food. They survived by drinking water from the walls of the cave and had eaten nothing until rescuers reached them. They had only one torch between them, but the battery had run flat. The leading means of bringing the trapped boys out of the cave is by teaching them to scuba dive. This could take a considerable length of time, as none of them are able to swim. In addition, some areas of the flooded caves are only wide enough to allow one diver to pass through them at a time. Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Show all 100 1 /100 Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures The 12 boys and their coach in the cave REUTERS Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures A rescue team stands in the entrance to the cave AP Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures A relative shows a picture of the boys after they were found on 2 July AFP/Getty Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Thai military inside the cave complex EPA Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures The 12 boys and their soccer coach who were rescued from a flooded cave arrive for a news conference in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, REUTERS Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures The boys and their soccer coach rescued from a flooded cave play soccer REUTERS Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures The young footballers and their coach appeared healthy when they appeared before the media for the first time since the rescue AFP/Getty Images Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures EPA Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Coach Ekapol Chantawong REUTERS Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures The 12 rescued members of the Wild Boar soccer team are greeted by their classmates on a mini soccer pitch EPA Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Rescued Thai football coach Ekkapol Chantawong together with 12 children pays tribute to Thai navy diver, Samarn Kunan, who died whilst attempting to rescue the boys AFP/Getty Images Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Twelve young footballers and their coach rescued from a Thai caves being treated in hospital EPA Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Rescued soccer team members posing with a sketch of the Thai Navy SEAL diver who died while trying to rescue them AP Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Players writing messages on a drawing of former Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan who died during attempts to rescue them AFP/Getty Images Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Rescued "Wild Boars" football team members (top row L to R) Adul Sam-on, 14, Ekkarat Wongsukchan, 14, Phipat Photi, 15, Chanin Wiboonrungrueang, 11, (middle row L to R) Pornchai Khamluang, 16, Duangphet Promthep, 13, Peerapat Sompiengjai, 16, Sompong Jaiwong, 13, (bottom row L to R) Mongkol Boonpiem, 13, Prachak Sutham, 14, Nutthawut Thakamsong, 14, and Phanumas Saengdee, 13, recovering at the hospital in Chiang Rai province AFP/Getty Images Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures AFP/Getty Images Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures The life vest belonging to Duangpetch Promthep, the rescued captain of the "Wild Boars", REUTERS Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Divers from the rescue mission, from left to right: Chris Jewell, Mike Clayton, Rick Stanton, Lance-corporal Connor Rae, Josh Bratchley, Gary Mitchell and Jim Way who helped to save 12 schoolboys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand, speak to media after arriving back at London's Heathrow Airport PA Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures Volunteers gather for a ceremony before the clean up operation at the Tham Luang cave AFP/Getty Images Thailand cave rescue operation: in pictures The last four Thai Navy SEALs come out safely after completing the rescue mission inside a cave where 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. Thailand's navy SEALs say all 12 boys and their soccer coach have been rescued from a flooded cave in far northern Thailand, ending an ordeal that lasted more than two weeks.<doc-sep>
An ambulance leaves the Tham Luang cave area after divers evacuated some of the 12 boys and their coach trapped at the cave in Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province on July 8, 2018. - Elite divers on July 8 began the extremely dangerous operation to extract 12 boys and their football coach who have been trapped in a flooded cave complex in northern Thailand for more than two weeks, as looming monsoon rains threatened the rescue effort. (Photo by LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP) / (Photo credit should read LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty Images) 12 boys and their coach all out of Thai cave Some of the boys who were trapped in a cave in Northern Thailand outside a hospital in Chiang Rai after being discharged. CHIANG RAI, THAILAND - JULY 18: Twelve boys and their coach from the "Wild Boars" soccer team arrive for a press conference for the first time since they were rescued from a cave in northern Thailand last week, on July 18, 2018 in Chiang Rai, Thailand. The 12 boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach were discharged early from Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital after a speedy recovery and thanked those involved in their rescue. (Photo by Linh Pham/Getty Images) (CNN) — Thais reacted with relief and jubilation after rescue teams reported that they’d found all 12 boys and their soccer coach alive in a cave in Thailand nine days after the group went missing. Rescuers at the scene outside Chiang Rai in northern Thailand cheered, exchanged high fives and slapped each others’ backs as it emerged that British cave divers had made contact with the boys deep withing the cave complex, after navigating tight, flooded passages to reach them. The Thai Navy released a video on Facebook apparently showing the moment the group were found. In the almost 5-minute clip, the boys are illuminated by torchlight while a diver can be heard speaking to them. In the tape of the encounter, one of the British rescuers asks, in English, how many were in the group. Thirteen, the boys report. “Thirteen, brilliant!” the diver replies – the number accounts for the entire missing party. Hooyah.....ทีมหมูป่า พบเยาวชนทีมหมูป่าบริเวณหาดทรายห่างจาก Pattaya beach 200 เมตร ... Posted by Thai NavySEAL on Monday, July 2, 2018 “We are coming, many people are coming. Many people, we are the first.” The dazed boys, unaware of how long they’ve been trapped deep underground, ask what day it is. “It’s Monday, you have been here 10 days, 10 days,” the rescuer replies. “You are very strong, very strong. We come, ok, we come.” The boys repeatedly tell them, in Thai, that they’re hungry and need food. The rescuer replies that a Thai Navy SEAL team will come, along with “food and doctors and everything.” The boys, who are between 11 and 16 years old, are all members of the Wild Boar soccer team. They entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system on Saturday, June 23 but became stranded in the dark tunnels by a sudden and continuous downpour. International rescue teams – which include the Thai Navy SEALs as well as experts from the US, China, Australia and the UK – had been working to reach a large, deep chamber, informally known as Pattaya Beach, where the missing boys were believed to have taken refuge. LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/AFP/Getty Images A family member shows a picture of four of the twelve missing boys near the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai on July 2, 2018. “I confirm they are all safe,” Narongsak Osottanakorn, governor of the local region Chiang Rai, told reporters on Monday night. Family members greeted the news with relief and tears of happiness, punching the air when they heard that their boys were alive. LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/AFP/Getty Images Family members of one of the missing boy celebrate while camping out near Tham Luang cave. “I was happy to hear the cheering from the rescue workers. I felt that I have hope that I am going to get to see my son alive,” said Adisak Wongsukjan, whose 14-year-old son Ekarat is one of the boys seen huddling in the cave. “I want to hug my son… usually our family sleep in the same bed together. We are a very close family.” AKKAPOL CHANTHAWONG/FACEBOOK The missing boys, with their coach, are seen here in a photo taken from the coach's Facebook page.