Four boys out of 12 trapped in Thai cave saved, the rest wait for rescue to resume Monday

Four of 12 Thai schoolboys were rescued from a flooded cave on Sunday in a daring and dangerous operation to save the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks.

Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit guided the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on Friday.

“Today was the best day, the best situation in terms of the weather, the health of the boys, our water management for our rescue effort,” the head of the rescue operation, Narongsak Osottanakorn, told a news conference.

“Today we managed to rescue and send back four children to Chiang Rai Prachanukrua Hospital safely.”

The rescuers needed at least 10 hours to prepare for their next operation, involving about 90 divers in total, 50 of them from foreign countries, he said.

A helicopter flew the four boys to the nearby city of Chiang Rai, where they were taken by ambulance to the hospital.