They’re all out! Soccer team and coach rescued from Thai cave
All
12 boys and their soccer coach trapped for more than two weeks deep
inside a flooded Thai cave have been rescued, marking a successful end
to a perilous mission that gripped the world.“The
12 Wild Boars and coach have emerged from the cave and they are safe,”
the Thai navy SEAL unit said on its official Facebook page.
The
team and their coach got trapped on June 23 while exploring the cave
complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai after soccer practice and
a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels.
British
divers found the team, hungry and huddled in darkness in a partly
flooded chamber several kilometres inside the complex, on Monday last
week.
After pondering for days how to get the 13 out, a rescue operation was launched on Sunday when four of the boys were brought out, tethered to rescue divers.
Another four were rescued on Monday and the last four boys and the coach were brought out on Tuesday night (AEST).
View photos
Thai
soldiers walk into to the Tham Luang cave area as the operations
continue for the boys and their soccer coach still trapped inside.
Source: Getty ImagesRescuer Suthee Sommart, who had been working in a team scouring for cave openings, said it was mission accomplished.“This mission is very special,” he said.“We have made history.”Health concernsNow they are out, concerns are set to focus on the physical and mental toll of the ordeal.Experts warned that drinking contaminated water or otherwise being exposed to bird or bat droppings in the cave could lead to dangerous infections.
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Members of the trapped soccer team in a section of Tham Luang cave. Source: AAPThey
also said counselling would be needed to deal with the psychological
trauma of spending so long not knowing whether they were going to
survive.But there were some promising initial signs.Medical chiefs reported on Tuesday morning that the eight boys rescued on Sunday and Monday were in relatively good mental and physical conditions.“All
eight are in good health, no fever… everyone is in a good mental
state,” Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, permanent secretary of the public health
ministry, said before all 13 had been rescued.
View photos
Nevertheless,
the boys would remain in quarantine in hospital until doctors were sure
they had not contracted any infections from inside the cave.
Even before the final rescues, tributes began for the courage of the boys and their ability to survive the ordeal.
“I
cannot understand how cool these small kids are, you know? Thinking
about how they’ve been kept in a small cave for two weeks, they haven’t
seen their mums,” Ivan Karadzic, who runs a diving business in Thailand
and has been involved in the rescue mission, told the BBC.
“Incredibly strong kids. Unbelievable almost.”
US President Donald Trump tweets congratulations
US President Donald Trump hailed the rescue.
“On
behalf of the United States, congratulations to the Thai Navy SEALs and
all on the successful rescue of the 12 boys and their coach from the
treacherous cave in Thailand,” Trump said on Twitter.
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