Thailand cave rescue: divers work to rescue missing football team – live | World news

It remains unclear whether any of the group are injured or in need of medical attention, but they have been given energy gels to sustain them while a plan is worked out to bring them to safety.

The boys are around a mile and a half underground in an area known as Patia beach and it could be days until they are successfully brought to the surface.

Captain Jessica Tait of the US Air Force, who joined the Thai-led international rescue mission from their base in Okinawa, Japan, told Sky News that its “not done” yet.

“We need to start thinking about isolated personnel and its about being able to bring them back safely,” she said.

The director of the school where half the boys go said they only had two to three days of food with them and Tait, who is part of a team of survival experts, paid tribute to the boys’ “mental fortitude” because people can survive in un-ideal conditions if the “heart is there”.

Rescuers searched for Thai boys as their families waited nervously outside

Footage from inside the cave shows rescuers going deeper into the flooded cave as the search for 12 trapped boys and their football coach entered its seventh day.

Aektrakoon Suwanmard, a member of the football team, said he went to practice with the team on the day they went missing but opted against going inside the cave because he had to go home early.

The desperate search for the boys and their coach has captivated Thailand and drawn sympathy from across the world as help has arrived from far and wide.

There is a 30-member US military team aiding the search operation, along with an Australian group of rescuers; while British cave experts and Chinese lifesaving responders and several other volunteer groups from various countries are assisting in the wider effort.

Prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has thanked everyone for their “tremendous efforts” in helping to locate the missing.

“The Royal Thai government and the Thai people are grateful for this support and cooperation, and we all wish the team a safe and speedy recovery,” his office said in a statement.

Although the divers are now with the missing football team and their coach, a number of challenges remain for the rescuers in northern Thailand, where it is 00:35 local time.

Anmar Mirza, a leading American cave rescue expert, said the primary decision is whether to try to evacuate the boys and their coach or to feed supplies through to them.

“Supplying them on site may face challenges depending on how difficult the dives are,” Mirza, coordinator of the US National Cave Rescue Commission, told the Associated Press.

“Trying to take non-divers through a cave is one of the most dangerous situations possible, even if the dives are relatively easy. That also begets the question: if the dives are difficult then supply will be difficult, but the risk of trying to dive them out is also exponentially greater.”

The governor of Chiang Rai province, Narongsak Osottanakorn, said Thai navy Seals had found the group in the six-mile Tham Luang Nang Non cave, on the border with Laos and Myanmar, “all with signs of life”.

He said, in comments broadcast nationwide, that the 13 were in the process of being rescued, but warned that he did not know their condition and they not were out of danger yet. “We found them safe. But the operation isn’t over,” he said.

The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach went missing after entering the cave on 23 June and being trapped by rising floodwater, prompting a desperate round-the-clock search beset by torrential downpours that stopped divers going in.

The international rescue effort has gripped Thailand. Cave diving experts flew in from the UK, and 17 US air force rescue and survival specialists travelled from Japan to join the 132 Thai army, navy and police officers working day and night to try to find the group.

Jon Henley has the latest story here and we will keep you updated as the rescue operation unfolds throughout tonight and into the morning.