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Thai cave rescuers hope to extract last group in coming hours

An ambulance leaves the site of the rescue efforts.

An ambulance leaves the site of the rescue efforts. Photo: Getty

Just five members of the Wild Boars soccer team remain trapped deep in a Thai cave and rescuers hope they’ll be out in coming hours as the final extraction teams move in.

Four more boys were successfully rescued on the second day of an audacious and risky operation.

The four boys are “safe and conscious” in hospital after being brought out of the Tham Luang Nang Non caves in Chiang Rai late Monday night, officials said.

Tweeting from the scene, Channel Ten reporter Daniel Sutton quoted  the mission commander as saying: “We expect that everybody will be out today, the children and coach and everybody will be out today”.

Eight of the 12 young footballers and their coach have now been brought out of the treacherous cave system by divers after four were removed on Sunday, the first day of the operation.

Chiang Rai acting governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said it was not decided yet if the remaining five people in the caves would be extracted in one or more operations.

So far, the dive teams have stuck to their plan of guiding no more than four boys at a time, and Mr Narongsak did not rule out the possibility of leaving one survivor on his own for an extra day, saying “the best number is four”.

It is believed the boys’ 25-year-old coach is among the five remaining in the flood-threatened cavern.

The group have been trapped for more than two weeks after heavy rains flooded the sprawling cave network, comprising caverns connected by tight passages.

Elite Australian divers have been assisting in the painstaking rescue operation.

Among them is Adelaide anaesthetist and cave diver Doctor Richard Harris, 53, who has been praised for his contribution so far.

On Sunday, officials waited several hours before confirming the safe rescue of the first four boys.

Mr Narongsak said Monday’s rescue operation, involving 18 divers and a support team of 100, had taken nine hours, two fewer than the rescues on Sunday.

“We have more expertise than yesterday,” he explained.

The Facebook page of the Thai Navy Seals, who have been central to the rescue operation, was updated on Monday night to say “two days, eight boars”  a reference to the name of the boys’ soccer team.

Mr Narongsak said rescue workers would need at least 20 hours to prepare for the next rescue operation, but that time frame could be accelerated depending on weather and water levels.

He voiced confidence in the ongoing operation, provided the weather doesn’t take a turn for the worse.

“If Phra Pirun helps us, we might be able to do it very quickly,” Mr Narongsak said, referring to the God of rain who is widely revered in Thailand.

“But if Phra Pirun doesn’t help, then it might be a little late.”

Workers have been working around the clock to pump water out of the cave, and officials said Monday that despite heavy downpours overnight, water levels inside the cave did not rise.

More worrying, however, oxygen levels in the chamber where the boys sought refuge were falling.

The rescue was carried out four to five hours ahead of schedule due to favourable conditions.

Authorities rushed to extract the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their coach from the cave as the annual monsoon bears down on the mountainous region in far northern Chiang Rai province.

The boys guided through the cave’s dark, tight and twisting passages on Sunday were happy and in good health, authorities said.

“This morning they said they were hungry and wanted to eat khao pad grapao,” Mr Narongsak said, referring to a Thai dish of meat fried with chili and basil and served over rice.

The four are undergoing medical checks in a hospital in the provincial capital and were not yet allowed close contact with relatives due to a fear of infections. Relatives were able to see them through a glass partition, the governor said.

Mr Narongsak said Thailand’s Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, who travelled to the cave site on Monday, visited all eight boys in the hospital.

The Thai Navy SEALS also posted a cartoon by an unnamed artist featuring animals, including a kangaroo, representing the trapped boys and their international rescuers.

The boys and their coach went exploring in the massive Tham Luang Nang Non cave on June 23 after football practice, and were cut off when a rainstorm flooded the cave.

A massive international search operation was launched and it took 10 days to locate the boys, who had taken shelter on a dry slope deep in the complex.

The death on Friday of a former Thai navy Seal underlined the risks. The diver, the first fatality of the rescue effort, was working in a volunteer capacity and died on a mission to place air canisters along the passage to where the boys are, necessary for divers to safely travel the five- to six-hour route.

-with agencies

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