Thailand cave rescue: Hooyah! Thai cave boys finally free after miracle rescue

Thai rescue chief says his crack team of international divers succeeded in getting the 12 young footabllers and their coach out of the flooded cave because they ‘loved, supported each other’.

A crack team of international cave divers last night completed one of the most extraordinary underground rescue missions ever ­attempted, pulling the last of 12 young Thai footballers and their coach to safety from deep inside a flooded cave complex in northern Thailand.

Shortly before 10pm, Thai navy SEALs confirmed the final four boys and their 25-year-old coach from the Wild Boars soccer team had been freed from Tham Luang cave after 17 days trapped in pitch darkness on a small sandy slope just above the waterline, 3.2km ­inside the winding cavern. “Thai navy SEALs confirm ALL 12 boys and coach now out of cave. An ­incredible, an extraordinary rescue mission,” the SEALs said in a tweet.

Thai cave rescue: the key moments in the rescue mission, as it happened

“Congratulations to the hundreds of people involved in this ­effort. Now for the three navy SEALs and one medic. Hooyah.

“12 wild pigs and coaches out of the cave. Safe everyone. This time, waiting to pick up 4 Frogs. We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what.”

Narongsak Osaththankorn, the man who led the monumental operation, said his team had pulled off “mission impossible”.

“An important lesson here is we succeeded because we love and support each other,” he said.

“Today Thai people, Team Thailand achieved the mission impossible.”

The outgoing governor of Chiang Rai, who became the international face of a rescue operation followed around the globe, addressed a throng of international Thai media around four hours after the last young footballer was rescued from the cave.

During the press conference he also announced that the three Thai Navy SEALs and the army medic who had stayed with the boys since they were first discovered on July 2 had safely left the cave.

The Australian understand they will need to be quarantined, as the boys have been, while they undergo thorough medical checks.

Mr Narongsak paid tribute to the 10,000 strong team of people — army, navy, air force, government departments and local volunteers — all of whom contributed to the efforts over the past 17 days.

But he said the “real hero of Tham Luang” was Saman Gunan, the former Thai Navy SEAL who died early Friday morning when he ran out of air on a return dive from placing spare air cylinders along the 3.2km route divers were travelling each day to reach the trapped boys

“I wish Saman sleeps well,” he said.

Relatives of the boys waiting outside the cave thanked rescuers.

But at the house where coach Ekkapol “Ake” Chantawong lives with his elderly grandmother the news of the rescue had not yet filtered through. A call from The Australian was the first his family knew of his rescue.

“I am so happy,” Ake’s aunt Umporn Sriwichai said as cheers could be heard in the background. “I want to jump in the air. I have been waiting and watching the news and when he arrives at the hospital I will go.”

Songpol Kanthawong, one of only two members of the Wild Boars team who did not go to the Tham Luang caves on June 23, told The Australian he was watching television when he heard the news and was “glad” his friends were all safe.

The final five had days to contemplate what lay ahead of them after the first four boys were freed on Sunday, and four of the youngest team members, aged just 12 to 14, made it out on Monday.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha confirmed the boys were given anti-anxiety drugs to calm their nerves before they began their dives. Adelaide anaesthetist and cave expert Richard Harris was also with the boys each day of the rescue, giving each of them medical clearance before their dive and leaving the cave only when the last boy had been rescued each day.

The evacuations came after almost a week of desperate efforts to pump water from the 10km-long cave complex and simultaneously find an alternative exit strategy through a “chimney” on the mountain above — all in the hope that rescuers could spare the boys a gruelling undertaking and a terrifying gamble. In the end there was no way around it.

The boys — the youngest just 11 years old, the oldest 16 — had to scuba-dive 1.7km each through the winding, narrow jaws of pitch-dark canyons lined with sharp stalactites and stalagmites, and then squeeze through a U-shaped crack little more than the height of a school ruler to reach the navy SEALs command centre in the third chamber, 1500m from the cave mouth.

They learned to dive only last week under the instruction of Thai Navy SEALs, after they were discovered by volunteer British cave divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton nine days from when they went missing.

The unthinkable notion of asking 12 children to negotiate such a life-threatening passage was best articulated by one of the dozens of international divers who has volunteered in the massive and inspiring effort to rescue the boys. Danish diver Ivan Karadzic told the BBC yesterday the children were being “forced to do something that no kid has ever done before”. “It’s not in any way normal for kids to do cave-diving at age 11. They’re diving in something considered an extremely hazardous environment with no training, in zero visibility. The only light that’s there is the torch light we bring ourselves.”

But cave-dive they did, emerging one by one from the Tham Luang cave that millions had feared could be their tomb, their eyes shielded in gauze to protect them but otherwise in astounding condition given their ordeal.

The Wild Boars soccer team, with coach Ekkapol Chantawong at left.

Health officials said earlier yesterday that the first eight boys rescued had initially suffered mild ailments ranging from coughs, fever, low heart rate and scratches. Two of the boys were showing early signs of mild pneumonia but were now being treated with antibiotics. Tests had also confirmed that many of the boys had high white-blood-cell counts, indicating they may have picked up ­infections. They have been quarantined at Chiang Rai hospital for at least 48 hours each while they await results of thorough medical assessments, but by last night the first eight were expected to have seen their desperate families through the plate-glass window of a hospital isolation room, and heard their voices for the first time through a phone hook-up.

The first four boys saw their loved ones for the first time on Monday night.

“They’ve been evaluated for hypothermia, blood testing, lung X-rays, heart rate, and also have received IV fluids and vaccines, and vitamin B1,” Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Jesada Chokedamrongsuk said yesterday of the boys.

“This morning they’re quite fresh. They are all talking and OK,” Dr Jesada said. “Now none have fever and they can move around easily by themselves.”

“Don’t worry about their health. Of course they have all lost weight,” but otherwise they were fine, he said. But their doctors ruled they were not well enough to take up an invitation from FIFA president Gianni Infantino to attend the World Cup final in Moscow on Monday morning.