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Breaking: Missing Thailand Boys Soccer Team Found by British Rescue Divers

By Becca Hurley | Published On July 2, 2018
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Breaking: Missing Thailand Boys Soccer Team Found by British Rescue Divers

If you haven’t been following the story of the Thai youth soccer players and their 25-year-old coach missing since June 23 in the Tham Luang caves in Chiang Rai, Thailand, let us catch you up.  

After a 10-day search that involved hundreds of volunteers and teams of technical divers, all 12 boys and their coach were found alive July 2. The team originally went missing during a visit to the caves after a soccer match that Saturday afternoon. But when heavy rains began and water levels started to rise within the cave system, the team ran into trouble.

They were found on a ledge deep within the cave system, where they took shelter from rising flood waters. The footage below is presumed to be the first look at the missing team and coach. You can hear their exchange with two British scuba divers who found them.

The rescuer asks, “How many of you?” and gets the reply, “Thirteen!”

“Brilliant!” says one of the divers. You can then hear the divers explain that since there are only two of them, they cannot rescue all 13 at once but they reassure the group that more help is on the way.

The difficulty now lies in how to execute a rescue of a team of young boys who presumably do not have scuba diving experience, let alone cave diving experience.  The New York Times reported earlier that given the boys weakened condition, this will be a challenge.

BBC’s Jonathan Head reports two options:

1 ) Continue to pump out water, to try to bring the boys out once levels have gone down.

2 ) Attempt to give the boys basic dive training and bring them out along underwater guide ropes that have been established; this is considered a very technical and difficult option.  

For now, their families and the public are rejoicing that the boys and coach are alive. Stay tuned for updates on the rescue efforts.