Author Topic: Thailand: Rescuers Regain Territory in Search for Missing Soccer Team  (Read 240 times)

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Officials working to rescue a teen soccer team missing in a cave in northern Thailand for a week struck a hopeful tone Saturday, as a let-up in torrential rains enabled rescuers to regain territory inside the 10-kilo (6-mile) labyrinth close to where they say the children may be.
Search personnel set up a makeshift base about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) inside the Tham Luang cave in northern Chiang Rai province, near where sandals, a cell phone and fingerprints of the children were found on Monday, before flooding forced rescuers to retreat.
"Today, we have been to a chamber at the T-section, not far away from Pattaya Beach, where we believe the children are," a Thai Navy official who asked not to be named told BenarNews.
Pattaya Beach is the name of an area on relatively high ground inside the cave containing a sand dune, named after the world-famous resort town of Pattaya south of Bangkok.
“Three Navy SEAL teams were dispatched to survey the cave and set up more pumps and telephone networks,” said a Royal Thai Navy statement, delivered from an operations center at the cave.
Rain which has continued since the thirteen members of Wild Boar Academy Mae Sai soccer team entered the cave on the afternoon of June 23 simmered down Saturday morning, easing pumping efforts, officials said.
“The SEAL teams continued diving to find passages. They are at a chamber, laying guide rods and emergency air tanks,” Narongsak Osottanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai, told reporters at the end of the day.
Divers have been essential to the search in the notorious cave, which tends to flood during the rainy season, and have been helping navigate submerged caverns and cramped passageways in a feverish six-nation rescue effort led by more than 1,000 Thai soldiers, police, government personnel and volunteers.
A rescue team from China was the latest to join survival experts from Britain, the United States, Laos, and Myanmar already at the scene on Saturday.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha traveled to the cave Friday to support the families of the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach. The families have been camped at the scene for a week alongside monks chanting prayers for the boys to emerge alive.
“The power of faith can make all things successful – have faith in the rescuers. Have faith in the strength of your children that they will come back to us,” Prayuth said.
Medivac rehearsal
Among those waiting at the cave entrance was Aektrakoon Suwanmard, a team member who did not participate in the cave trek a week ago.
"That day I went for practice with them, but I did not come to the cave because I have to go home early," he told reporters at the scene, according to Reuters.
"The reason to visit the cave is for fun. They have planned to come here because everybody prepared flashlight as coach told them to."
On Saturday morning, medical teams rehearsed for a smooth evacuation of survivors from the cave to a helipad three kilometer away.
The Chiang Rai governor said a physician team with diving abilities was also on standby.
“We have a medical team who can dive and will dive into the cave just in case we need to treat them and revitalize them to get stronger before we can take them out,” Narongsak told reporters.
Thanasarn Preuktisataporn, a local doctor currently stationed at the cave, told reporters the children had a high chance of survival, despite being in the cave for a week.
“They have oxygen to breathe because there are some shafts, water to drink, they should still be alive,” he said. “In the cave, there are no disease carriers, the bats have no germs... They are strong kids, they could survive a considerably long period.”
Rescue teams have also searched for alternative entrances to the cave and dropped packages of food and water down air shafts, without knowing if they would reach the cave floor or member of the team, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
One rescue team drilled from the surface through a 40-metre (130-foot) chimney and sent teams into a muddy chamber below, in what was initially described as a promising development.  Narongsak, the Chiang Rai governor, said there were no further developments in this effort Saturday.
Pimuk Rakkanam in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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