Thailand cave rescue: Final five to be rescued ‘tomorrow’ ahead of forecast storms

Four more boys were evacuated from the Tham Luang caves in northern Thailand today, leaving just four boys and their football coach trapped on a ledge more than two miles from safety.

The rescue mission was completed two hours faster than yesterday’s effort, which also saw four boys freed, and the team of rescue divers from Thailand and around the world is expected to complete the dangerous mission tomorrow – weather permitting.

“We think we can do better again tomorrow, and we will succeed – 100 per cent,” Narongsak Osatanakorn, the former provincial governor and coordinator of the rescue mission announced this evening.

The first of the four emerged from the caves and was handed over to medics shortly before 5pm. The fourth appeared around 8pm before being transported by ambulance and then helicopter to a hospital in the provincial capital of Chiang Rai, about 60km away.

Mr Narongsak said that while the boys were unable to take solid foods, they were in a stable condition.

He said the third phase of the rescue mission would get underway as soon as oxygen tanks placed along the route had been replenished – potentially shorter than the 15-hour gap between the first two stages of the mission.

“If we are ready sooner, we will begin sooner,” Mr Narongsak said.

Major General Chalongchai Chaiyakham, the regional military commander, noted, however, that the rescue plan would need to be tweaked slightly to include a fifth person.  

Earlier in the evening, an official from the Mae Sai district office revealed that families had been prevented from waiting at the mouth of the cave, in order to avoid any hysteria that might accompany the boys’ arrival.

Parents of those rescued were notified individually, he explained, and only once the boys had left the scene and were en route to the hospital.

“We don’t want to create a scene where we have families getting upset with one another, or where we have people at the rescue site screaming ‘what about my son,’” said the official, who asked not to be named because he does not have authority to speak publicly on the matter.

Rumours have been swirling about how the rescue team would decide what order to bring the boys out of the cave. The district official said that those in the worst condition had been brought out first, and that only three of them – those rushed to hospital yesterday in a helicopter – had been in a worrying state. 

He said that those rescued today and the five still inside the cave were “not in a dangerous condition.” 

Officials have still not named any of the eight boys to come out of the caves, in a bid to give privacy to the families as they are nursed back to health following more than two weeks trapped without decent food, fresh air or sunlight. 

It is believed that the boys have not been allowed physical contact with their families, for fear that they are carrying and could spread disease or infection. 

With the weakest of the boys now free and in the hands of medical professionals, it appears that only a drastic turn in the weather could derail what is likely to be the final day of the rescue mission.

Storms are forecast for tomorrow. They were also forecast for today, but never arrived.