4 boys safely pulled from Thailand cave as second leg of rescue mission to begin in 10 to 20 hours

Four of the 12 boys trapped with their soccer coach in a cave in Thailand for 16 days were successfully extracted by divers in an hours-long subterranean rescue mission that has gripped the attention of the world, according to the Thai Navy SEALs.

The international effort to save the group has paired elite divers in “buddy teams” with the remaining eight boys and their coach.

Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn said the second part of the mission to rescue the others would begin in about 10 to 20 hours after authorities reconvene to assess conditions in the cave and get a briefing on how the initial rescues went.

The first four boys saved were removed from the cave a few minutes apart, immediately placed into ambulances and rushed to a hospital in Chiang Rai, Osatanakorn said. He said all of the boys were healthy.

Doctors and nurses ready with IVs waited in the emergency bay of the hospital and as the boys arrived in separate ambulances, the medical teams sprang into action, transferring the boys onto gurneys and wheeling them into the ER to be thoroughly examined and treated.

While news of the miraculous rescue spread through the region, excitement and relief was tapered by the drama still unfolding in bowels of the Tham Luang Nang Non, where the remaining eight boys and their coach were still holed up in a dry chamber more than two miles from the entrance.

The task of extracting the remaining members of the group was fraught with dangers heightened by the death on Friday of a volunteer diver who succumbed to fatal oxygen deprivation.

Fighting floodwaters, rapidly dropping oxygen levels and racing against an impending monsoon rainstorm, the rescue operation began at 10 a.m. local time when 13 international divers entered the cave, 10 of them headed to the chamber deep inside the underground labyrinth in northern Thailand. Some nine hours later, the divers emerged from the mouth of the cavern with the first rescued boy and were quickly followed by the second, authorities said.

Osatanakorn said that the oxygen level inside the cave needs to be replenished before rescuers embark on the phase of the mission.

“We should be ready in a short period of time. When the next operation will proceed, I cannot give you a definite time. It’s about more than 10 hours away, not more than 20 hours, but we have to observe the conditions,” Osatanakorn said. “It has to be stable like today. If it’s stable like today, and we are sure, we can operate as soon as possible.”

The operation to save the once-stranded 13 appeared doubtful just days ago as rescuers from Thailand, the United States, Australia, China and Great Britain brainstormed to find a way to remove the soccer team despite facing treacherous conditions and having to train boys, who did not know how to swim, to perform the most perilous type of diving even for the most experienced Navy SEALs.

The high drama in Thailand’s longest cave even drew help from American billionaire businessman Elon Musk, whose SpaceX designers set aside their rocketship venture to build a “kid-sized” submarine to free the trapped boys.

Authorities said at a press conference Sunday morning in Chiang Rai province that they made the decision to rescue the boys as oxygen drops and the threat of monsoon rains approaches.