The first six schoolboys have emerged from a flooded Thai cave after divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to rescue the children and their soccer coach, who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks, a Thai official said.
Two came out first, followed by another four.
“Two kids are out. They are currently at the field hospital near the cave,” Tossathep Boonthong, chief of the health department in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, told Reuters. “We are giving them a physical examination.”
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit are trying to bring the rest of the boys – some as young as 11 and weak swimmers – through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on Friday.
Their ordeal has drawn huge media attention in Thailand and abroad, and getting the boys out safely could be a boost for Thailand’s ruling junta ahead of a general election next year.
“Today is D-Day,” Narongsak Osottanakorn, head of the rescue mission, had earlier told reporters.
Bursts of heavy monsoon rain soaked the Tham Luang Cave area in northern Chiang Rai province on Sunday and storms were expected in the coming…
