Chinese experts join Thailand cave rescue

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01:08

Twelve boys and their football coach, who have been trapped in a Thai cave for 10 days have been found on Tuesday. Two teams of Chinese rescue experts have already arrived in Thailand to join the search and rescue of the group.

“We are very concerned about the safety of the missing people of the Thailand football team,” Lu Kang, the spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, adding that the Chinese non-governmental rescue team who joins the search voluntarily reflect that “China and Thailand are kith and kin.”

British divers were the first to reach the 12 trapped schoolboy footballers and their coach in the waters of the cave system in Tham Luang, Thailand. /VCG Photo

The first Chinese rescue team arrived in Thailand on June 29, and the six-member rescue team brought equipment such as an underwater robot, diving equipment, and three-dimensional imager.

“We will have two rescuers as a group, one to hold or back up a child, another will assist them,” the leader of the rescue team Wang Yingjie told CCTV reporters.

They will train the children on using a full-face respirator and how to communicate with rescuers under the condition that they cannot speak to each other, he added.

Wang noted it might take four to five days to rescue all of them.

The football team went into the cave on June 23 after a training session and became stranded when heavy rains cut them off from the entrance.

The rescue is continuing, and Passakorn Boonyarat, deputy governor of Chiang Rai province, said a phone cable would be installed and the boys will be able to talk with their families via military phone.

(Cover: Rescuers from China and Australia have recently joined the search for 12 boys and their soccer coach. /VCG Photo)