Around 1 p.m. Saturday, 23rd June, 2018, the weather was clear when Prajak Sutham, 14, Pipat Bhodi, 15, and some of their soccer teammates chained their bikes to a rail at the entrance of the cave, hooked their backpacks over their shoulders, and hiked into Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the mountains of northern Thailand.

The 12 boys, members of the Wild Boars soccer team, and their 25-year-old coach, had explored inside the cave before.
Popular with tourists, it's a place locals know well.


For the first kilometer (600 yards) or so inside the cavernous entrance, limestone rock formations hug high ceilings, creating an almost amphitheater-like atmosphere.




https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/29/asia/search-thai-cave-boys-intl/index.html
Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Hmm

Deeper inside, the passages narrow into places the locals warn it's not safe to go.

For reasons unknown, the boys and their coach ventured on, deeper into the cave network, past signs that warn people not to enter during the rainy season, which usually begins in July.

They forged ahead as the ceilings dropped and the pathways contracted.

They'd clocked three kilometers (1.8 miles) by the time they reached a fork in the passageway.

To the left, a longer trek, but an exit point at the end.

To the right, higher ground, where a chimney-like chute made of rock jutting straight up out of the mountain was the only way out.

They took off their backpacks and their shoes.

Outside, it began to rain.




Pictured, a pair of boot and other belongings of the team were found deep in the cave.

They've been on d search for 6 days.been following on cnn
My opinion is those kids are exhausted and dead

Strange things are happening and resulting to death.
Parents should always warn their kids of this little little things that can take life

It was hours later that a ranger from the national park in Chiang Rai Province alerted authorities, when he noticed the bikes still chained up after the park had closed.

Search and rescue efforts began soon after.

The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their coach, have now been missing for a week.

Emergency services working frantically to find them have spent the past few days dropping food down holes they find in the jungle-covered mountain in the hope it connects with the caves below.

Volunteers help pump water out of the cave entrance.

Search and rescue teams from the US military have arrived at the Thai government's request to help with the effort, along with British underwater cave experts.

Thai Navy Seals with diving gear have swum some five kilometers (3 miles) into the pitch-black passageways to try to find the boys and returned without a sense of where they might be.

Around 1,000 Navy SEAL divers, police, soldiers, border guards with sniffer dogs and officials have been mobilised for the around-the-clock rescue in a remote border mountainous province near the Laos and Myanmar borders.

There's not been a sound from the missing boys all this time.

Their families are frantic.

"I feel I have just lost my heart when I found his bag, mobile phone and his shoes," said Prajak Sutham's father Sudsakorn.

"But all I can do is wait."

The boys are close to each other and their coach, said Noppadon Kanthawong, one parent whose son plays on the team, but who'd decided to skip Saturday's cave trip.

"He would be there at the field waiting for the kids to show up after school," he told CNN.

"It's a great way to keep healthy, away from screens, and have friends.

I can tell that they are very close to each other," Noppadon said.

Noppadon and his son huddled with other teammates at the entrance to the cave, waiting for any word on the rest of the Wild Boars team.

Meanwhile, the rain continued to beat down, preventing helicopters from searching for possible hidden entry points, and drones from sweeping the 10 kilometers (6 miles) stretch looking for heat signatures.

Even as workers pumped water and mud out of the cave, the rain persisted, complicating efforts.

Vernon Unsworth, a British caver and longtime resident in Chiang Rai, who has explored the cave before, told CNN water was the greatest danger.

"Physically, it's not a hard cave, it's just very long and it has big passages, small passages," he said.

"It's not difficult but if the children have gone in too far then the floodwaters from the far end will be coming through.

With the rain, it's not making it any easier."

On Friday, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha visited the rescue site, where some 840 soldiers, 90 members of a special forces unit, four helicopters, excavators and disaster relief equipment have been dedicated to the rescue effort.


“Whatever can be done, do it, the government will back it,”

Thailand's energy ministry said it would supply drills for an operation focused on creating cavities in the side of the mountain to try to locate the team.

The environment ministry said it would donate x-ray machines for scanning purposes.



On Friday morning, workers said a narrow opening in the hills above the cave might be a potential access point.

British cave experts entered the natural chimney Friday morning and managed to descend to a depth of about 20 meters (65 feet).

Rescuers believe dropping in from above is a more promising option to reach the tunnels because it is not blocked by floodwaters.

Water pumps, brought from the capital of Bangkok and designed to alleviate major flooding in the city, have been working relentlessly to ease water levels inside the passageways.

Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn told CNN the heavy duty water pumps have made a difference, but the rain continues to be a significant factor.

"We are in the rainy season, but the amount of rain we are facing is very unusual.

It rained (on June 27) from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m.

Our teams who were working inside the cave had to withdraw to the mouth of the cave," he said.

"We just can't fight with the water."

It's not the first time people have disappeared inside the cave for an extended period of time and survived.


According to unconfirmed local news reports, a former village headman in the area of Tham Luang said that in 1974, a group of foreign hikers had become trapped in the same cave for seven days.

However conditions then were dry.

Narongsak was still hopeful that even after seven days, with so many elements against them, the boys and their coach will survive.
"We have hope they are alive," he said.

"If you asked me if they are alive, I would say we have hope."
Pipat Bhodi had a birthday last Sunday.

His father Pinyo told CNN that the family had planned a surprise party for Pipat. A cake for the birthday boy remains untouched.


"We need a miracle," Pipat's father Pinyo said. "I want him back."


Pictured, water pump, rescue team pumping out water from the flooded cave and Thai soldiers relaying electric and communication cable deep into the entrance of the Tham Luang Nang Non cave network.

My prayers are with the family.may God help them out. I just want to imagine if this similar scenario had happen in Nigeria,would the Government had acted like this? My people lets wake up from this slumber and make Nigeria great again.

Jisos! They are only children! 7 days alone in a dark cave is too long! Omg! Please God

Thai Navy Seals with diving gear have swum some five kilometers (3 miles) into the pitch-black passageways to try to find the boys and returned without a sense of where they might be.

Around 1,000 Navy SEAL divers, police, soldiers, border guards with sniffer dogs and officials have been mobilised for the around-the-clock rescue in a remote border mountainous province near the Laos and Myanmar borders.

Imagine the amount of resources deployed to rescue 8 people. If this has happened in Nigeria, the FG would only send you a watery condolence message via Twitter with a hashtag. Unless, the leaders of the political elite had their grandchilden on that trip, that's when you'll see some action.

Mother nature can be very cruel at times. I hope these kids and their teacher are rescued alive.

The saga of the missing team has gripped the nation as rescue efforts snowballed from a small local team to a multinational emergency response.

Forces from the U.S. and Australia have arrived to support Thai authorities, as well as technical experts from the U.K., Belgium and Israel.

The boys are believed to have entered the cave after practice with their assistant coach, 25-year-old Ekkapol Chantawong, on what was meant to be roughly a five-hour trek.
Lalasticlala, Mynd44
But monsoon rains flooded several chambers, preventing their exit.

Their bicycles and cleats were later discovered abandoned at the mouth of the cave.


Authorities brought in submersible pumps to drain the passage, but new rains kept filling the chambers back up.

Rescuers then began looking for alternatives, scouring the hillside with drones and sheer manpower for fissures that could provide another entry to a large chamber called Pattaya where it is hoped they have found refuge.

they warned them




oversabi

they warned them




oversabi

they warned them




oversabi

Heat imaging drones are also being used to search the hilly terrain above the cave system.

Drilling to open up a new access point should start Saturday, when rescuers expect to receive results of a scan of the mountain, which they hope will reveal the most promising sites.

Earlier, trekking teams found a vertical shaft that appeared to lead into the cave and dropped in food and drinking water, in case the group was nearby, Thanya Netithamkul, director general of the national park, wildlife and plants department said.

The terrain is tough going mountainous and heavily forested, slowing down teams looking for other possible points of entry, and the rains across that region have been "relentless," according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

"It is the southwest monsoon and the rainfall continues to come," he said, which further complicates the rescue efforts.





Pictured, special equipment used by the rescue able to transmit live video from the camera mounted their helmets and trekkers/rescue operation navigating thick jungle and difficult underfoot conditions in the trek to look for other possible points of entry into the cave.

Explorers:
Special equipment used by the rescue able to transmit live video from the camera mounted on their helmets.

So they can be seen now?
I don't understand.

MissJoy29:

So they can be seen now?
I don't understand.

No, helmets of the rescue team.

Explorers:


No, helmets of the rescue team.

Ok....I understand.

Two theories



The boys and their coach are believed to have crawled into the large series of caves through a narrow, 15-meter (50-foot) channel.

A sign at the entrance to the cave, a popular tourist attraction warns of danger during the rainy season, which is just getting underway.

Rescue teams are currently entertaining two theories about where the boys might be, working from the starting point where their bags were found, at a fork 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the mouth of the cave, deep into the underground tunnels.



They could have turned left or right at this point, but Thai rescuers have been working on the assumption that they took the closest high ground, to the left heading south.

UK experts now wonder if they went right, which would have taken them to the highest ground overall heading north, which is where the chimney is being explored.

Divers continue to work at the mouth of the cave, and drilling is underway at several points in the cave complex, primarily to relieve the flooding.

Pumps are also being used to try to dispel the water from cave tunnels, rather than provide access.


Josh Morris, the founder of Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures, who is familiar with the terrain, says that despite the ticking clock, there is reason to be optimistic about the group's survival.

"I'm sure there is hope left.

The boys are still within the first week and the boys who have been going into this cave, from what I have understood, have been in the cave many times before, so it is highly likely that they kind of knew where they were going and were able to get themselves to a safe place,"

He told CNN's "Connect the World."

bujebudanu1:
They've been on d search for 6 days.been following on cnn
My opinion is those kids are exhausted and dead

Strange things are happening and resulting to death.
Parents should always warn their kids of this little little things that can take life

Parents should warn their kids, true, but they had an adult with them who should have known better.

I agree with your opinion. Seven days, no food or clean water. The reality which people are unwilling to accept is VERY GRIM.

Any way, never say never. We will remain positive till the end.

I can only imagine how it would have been if this was Nigeria.

I pray that these boys are found alive and in good health also. This is what i call "an organized country"

If to say na Naija there case na OYO

Imagine the whole Thailand including president at a halt for 13 kids.

Nigeria is a joke

Ishilove:

Parents should warn their kids, true, but they had an adult with them who should have known better.

I agree with your opinion. Seven days, no food or clean water. The reality which people are unwilling to accept is VERY GRIM.

Any way, never say never. We will remain positive till the end.

I can only imagine how it would have been if this was Nigeria.

Just hoping for the best.

They can't warn them because adventure is in their blood, even the parent will do the same.


In some countries, it going be cave spirit, oracle swallowed them.

Any rescue team that attempts to search will also be swallowed.

So they won't just brother or give up after 2days.

Explorers:


Just hoping for the best.

They can't warn them because adventure is in their blood, even the parent will do the same.


In some countries, it going be cave spirit, oracle swallowed them.

Any rescue team that attempts to search will also be swallowed.

So they won't just brother or give up after 2days.

Even if adventure is in their blood, the adult with them nko? Is he not supposed to be the sensible one?

Ishilove:

Parents should warn their kids, true, but they had an adult with them who should have known better.

I agree with your opinion. Seven days, no food or clean water. The reality which people are unwilling to accept is VERY GRIM.

Any way, never say never. We will remain positive till the end.

I can only imagine how it would have been if this was Nigeria.

Well.no Nigeria kid will open his/her eyes to enter that kinda cave/trap

bujebudanu1:


Well.no Nigeria kid will open his/her eyes to enter that kinda cave/trap

Yea, because is not our thing.

Thinking of Nigeria makes me sulk and get red eyes.

13kids
1000+ rescue team....

daveP:
Thinking of Nigeria makes me sulk and get red eyes.

7kids
1000+rescue team....

That's it bro, so sad.

They're parents are not politicians o, see the response.

Explorers:


That's it bro, so sad.

They're parents are not politicians o, see the response.

Sometimes I sit and think if outright political cleansing will help this country. just like Rawlings if Ghana did.


They just have the same modus operandi and they groom more to follow the modus.


It may not solve all but it will solve half the problems.

See a whole PM leaving whatever important meetings and conference and programs to attend to the emergency. I'm afraid that the bitterness these conflict triggers have created may just about be boiling till the south takes up power again. and on and on the cycle continues sotey we won't know who was right or wrong again.


Mascherano actually wasn't just describing out super eagles. He was describing the whole Nigeria.

Pumping machine and Mobile generator to provide electricity in the cave.

Rescue team, police, Thai soldiers, divers during a briefing in the cave.

Three British cave experts about to explore the cave.

Thai soldiers with map of the cave.