Miracle in Thailand: Missing Boys Found Alive in Cave After Nine Days
Twelve young boys, the members of a football team in Thailand have been found alive together with their coach. They have been trapped inside a flooded cave in Chiang Rai province in the northern part of Thailand, for a total of nine days.
The children and their football coach were trapped when the cave they were exploring flooded. Rescuers and experienced divers took more than a week of searching until they finally found them, miraculously unharmed and even dry.
The boys and their coach were found safe at around 1:30 pm local time on Monday, July 2, if a bit hungry and weak from the time they spent waiting for rescue. At that point, it became a new challenge for the rescuers on how to bring them back outside the flooded cave safely, according to the Washington Post.
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The young soccer team will also need to have its members have a medical exam, according to Narongsak Osatanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai province where the boys were trapped. A doctor was brought to them the same way the rest of the rescuers went — by diving.
"We found all 13 safe... We will take care of them until they can move," he told reporters and the media, amidst cheers after news broke that all the boys were found safe and alive.
"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," Narongsak added, as quoted by Agence France Presse.
The football team's bicycles, bags and sports gear were found near the entrance of the cave. The boys and their coach went into the Tham Luang cave to explore on June 23, after a long training session. Hard rains and sudden flooding has cut them off from the exit.
The Tham Luang cave, at around 6.2 miles long, is one of the longest caves in Thailand, and was also one of the hardest to move around in due to its narrow passages that would quickly fill up with water during the rainy seasons.
