Unbelievably dangerous mission to rescue remaining eight schoolboys will start soon
foto: dailymail
The rescue mission aiming to bring out the remaining members of a Thai youth football team, who have been stuck inside a flooded cave for two weeks, has entered its second day.
A team of divers are reportedly planning on bringing out four of the eight remaining children on Monday evening local time, while the strongest boys and their coach will have to wait until later this week.
Parents waiting at the entrance, many of whom have been holding 24-hour vigils despite the overnight rains, say they are still not being told 'anything' about which four boys are about to emerge from the cave - or even who is already out.
Earlier today, divers started placing new oxygen tanks along the way out of the underground network as part of preparations to repeat the mission which saw four boys rescued yesterday.
The same 12 divers will conduct today's operation because they know the tunnels and how to carry out the rescue.
'We've been working continuously overnight,' a Chiang Rai government source told AFP on Monday morning, requesting anonymity, and confirming that there had only been a pause of the actual extraction operations.
However, by noon on Monday (6am UK time) authorities had given few other others details about the latest developments in the rescue mission.
With so few details released, parents continued their agonising wait to be reunited with their sons.
'I am still waiting here at the cave, keeping my fingers crossed to see whether my son will be one of those to come out today,' Supaluk Sompiengjai, mother of Pheeraphat - known by his nickname 'Night' - told AFP.
'We heard four boys are out but we do not know who they are. Many parents are still here waiting. None of us has been informed of anything.' But she added she was 'happy' at the prospect of seeing her son again.
Sunday's 'masterpiece' three-and-a-half-hour mission, led by expert British divers, saw four children being calmly guided to safety after 15 days of being stuck in their fetid underground prison.
Wearing full-face masks, the youngsters swam – for the first time in their lives – through miles of mud-clogged underwater tunnels which claimed the life of an elite Thai navy diver on Friday.
On finally emerging blinking into the daylight, the boys were hugged by their British rescuers before being taken to hospital.
Speaking in Bangkok, Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said the four pulled from the cave 'are strong and safe' and in the care of doctors.
The first boy out was Monhkhol Boonpiam, 13, known as Mark. The second boy was Prajak Sutham, known as Note.
Number three was Nattawoot Thakamsai, a 14-year-old asthma sufferer whose parents have already lost a baby daughter to cancer.
Lastly came Pipat Bodhu, 15, aka Nick, who was not even in the team but came along as a friend of the goalkeeper.
Eight other young players and their 25-year-old coach of the Wild Boars football team were chosen to remain in the cavern – half a mile deep – until today.
Commanders paused the mission overnight to replenish oxygen supplies and give the rescuers a break. But they remain 'at war with water and time' as torrential monsoon downpours deluged the Tham Luang cave, in the hilly jungle of northern Thailand, and threatened to flood it even further.
Read more on dailymail.co.uk.