Thailand cave rescue: Former Thai navy diver dies

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A former Thai Navy Seal has drowned while assisting to rescue 12 boys trapped inside a cave, a Thai official said Friday.

"It was sad news, a former Seal who volunteered to help died last night about 2 am," Chiang Rai deputy governor Passakorn Boonyaluck told reporters, adding "his job was to deliver oxygen (in the cave). He did not have enough on his way back."

Rescue work for the trapped 12 boys and their soccer coach has entered the fifth day after they were found in a deep and flooded cave complex on late Monday.

As of Thursday, rescuers were no closer to deciding when and how to extract the boys and their soccer coach, pale and weak but otherwise in good health, after nine days lost underground.

The search and rescue operation for the junior soccer team, who disappeared in the cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai on June 23, had seemed to be nearing an end when a team of British and Thai divers found the boys late on Monday, clustered on a small, muddy bank in a flooded chamber.

But attention has now turned to how to get the group back out through several kilometers of dangerously flooded tunnels.

Soldiers and rescue workers carry aid supplies to the Tham Luang cave complex, where members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach have been found alive, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, July 5, 2018. /VCG Photo

The navy has raised the possibility that the 13 could be in the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province until the flood waters recede, at the end of the rainy season in four months.

But others say the boys could be out in a matter of days if the weather is on their side and water can be pumped out of the cave complex, and if they can be taught to use scuba diving gear.

It was up to the rescue team in the cave to decide whether and when the boys would be strong enough to tackle the journey out, said Kobchai Boonarana, deputy director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation department.

"Their conditions, we can see that their morale is good but what about their strength and their ability? That's up to the team inside to decide," said Kobchai on Thursday.

Policemen stand guard outside a cave during a rescue operation for 12 boys and their coach trapped in the cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province, July 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

"Our job is to keep pumping out water and it is up to the team inside to assess the safety level and whether the kids can travel safely through," he said.

Some relatives of the boys gathered near the cave early on Thursday, where a few rescuers were marching up to its entrance, a contrast to days of frantic activity during a search that has grabbed media attention around the world.

One mother said she had still not been able to contact her boy.

"We can't send them messages yet," said Ratdao Chantrapul, 37, the mother of 14-year-old Prajak Sutham.

Relatives of the 12 boys and their soccer coach who went missing inside a partially flooded cave in northern Thailand, wait to hear news of the rescue, July 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

"Yesterday, they tried to take in mobile phones but the bag it was in broke," she said.

Rescuers had to contend with days of heavy rain that flooded the cave complex at the beginning of the search but the weather has been relatively dry for the past four days.

Rescuers have sent in food, water and medical staff while they have been pumping water out of the tunnels in a bid to lower water levels to help with the rescue.

But the meteorological department warned on Thursday that up to 60 percent of the country's north, including Chiang Rai, can expect heavy rain from July 7 to July 12.

Source(s): Reuters