British divers discovered 12 missing boys and their soccer coach who had been missing for 9 days in an underground cave system in Thailand.
But they now face larger challenges, NBC News reports: ‘The group could be stuck in the cave “up to three or four months,” Ben Reymenants, a locally based diving instructor who is assisting with the effort, told NBC News on Tuesday. Two Thai Navy doctors have volunteered to be “locked up” in the cave with the team, he added. Another complication is that the boys do not know how to swim. “The water level in the cave is still very high, so we have to teach them how to swim to come out from there,” the provincial governor, Narongsak Osottanakorn, told reporters. “We will give them diver masks, but only the rescue teams can decide whether they can be brought out safely in this way.” The handful of rescuers who joined the group in the cave brought food and energy supplements, salt water solution, anti-inflammatory drugs and basic painkillers, he added. “They are very weak and very skinny, and almost unable to walk,” Reymenants said, “so that’s what they are working on now — to give them strength and get them back on their legs.”
The Independent adds: “Rescuers are racing to pump water from the Tham Luang Nang Non Cave before the predicted arrival of heavy rain, which would complicate efforts to free the team, who have been trapped 1km underground for the last 10 days. Thai interior minister Anupong Paochinda has said the boys will be brought out the same complicated route the rescue diverse took to find them. He said efforts to pump out the water would continue, but that it was clear there were areas which could not be drained.”
Live updates here.
