CHIANG RAI (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): The rescue of 12 trapped boys and their football coach started on Sunday (July 8), with 18 divers sent into Tham Luang cave. The earliest the boys would emerge could be 9pm (10pm Malaysia time).
The divers - 13 international and five Thais - went into the cave at 10am local time, according to a press conference held at the site.
“Today is the peak of our readiness,” Narongsak Osottanakorn, a former provincial governor who is leading the rescue efforts, said at the press conference, The Guardian reported.
“Everything is ready. The boys are ready and willing to come out. The doctors and medics are ready. The parents are ready,” said Mr Narongsak.
It is possible for divers to advance to the third chamber on foot, he added.
Narongsak would not confirm if the boys and their coach have to dive out of the cave, saying only that Sunday is the best day to attempt the journey “because most of the path is walkable”, according to The Guardian.
Narongsak said on Sunday morning that extraction rehearsals were conducted throughout Saturday.
very dangerous Thai cave rescue begins, this is the narrowest part of the cave. pic.twitter.com/Bzwk1dzi6U
— #Thinker ?? (@areta) July 8, 2018
The 12 boys and their football coach - as well as their families - have been informed of the rescue mission.
An Australian doctor assessed the boys on Saturday night and gave them the all-clear, said Narongsak. Medical teams are ready to treat the group when they emerge from the cave, The Guardian reported.
Narongsak said the earliest the boys will be out is 9pm on Sunday (10pm Malaysia time). This is because of the long journey from the entrance to where they are located, according to The Guardian.
There is also no guarantee that the rescue of all the boys will be completed on Sunday.
An army spokesman at the press conference said that the rescue operation could take three to four days, depending on the weather.
Meanwhile, officials have said that the search team looking for shafts from the top of the mountain as an alternative route of rescue have ruled out that option, The Guardian reported.
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Earlier on Sunday, a Bangkok Post reporter said on Twitter that the rescue operation of the 12 trapped boys and their football coach would start with recovering four boys first.
“Sending support and prayers to the Seal unit and the first four kids to come out safe,” reporter Wassana Nanuam wrote on Twitter, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Earlier on Sunday, the Thai authorities evacuated an area around a cave in northern Thailand where the boys and their football coach have been trapped so that a rescue operation can take place, Reuters reported.
The announcement came as dark monsoon rainclouds loomed over the mountainous north of the country early on Sunday, potentially heightening risks at the cave where rescuers were still waging a "war with water and time" to save the 12 trapped boys and their coach.
The boys, aged between 11 and 16, went missing with the 25-year-old chaperone after football practice on June 23 as they set out to explore the Tham Luang cave complex in a forest park near the border with Myanmar.
"Assessing the situation now, it is necessary to evacuate the area for the rescue operation," said Mae Sai police commander Komsan Saardluan over a loudspeaker. "Those unrelated to the rescue operation, please evacuate the area immediately."
A large media contingent began packing up equipment such as tripods and cameras, and moving down a muddy hill away from the mouth of the limestone cave.
Following a relatively dry spell, fresh torrential downpours could pose a setback to rescuers who have struggled to drain the Tham Luang cave complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai.
Weather.com forecast sustained thunderstorms lasting through Sunday and Monday, with further stormy weather expected for the next two weeks.
Gong Hui, a Chinese diver involved in the operation that has drawn some 130 Thai and international divers, told Reuters on Saturday before the fresh rains that water levels in the cave had "receded a lot" after sustained pumping removed millions of litres of water.
A former member of Thailand's elite navy Seal unit died during a dive last Thursday night, a grim turn in what began two weeks ago as an outing to celebrate the birthday of one of the boys.
Up on the hill, where rescuers are seeking alternative routes down into the cave, another accident occurred when a vehicle skidded off a dirt track, seriously injuring several people, the authorities said.
Earlier at the sprawling cave mouth, lines of frogmen and soldiers with flashlights could be seen emerging from the darkness, as generators chugged and pumped water out through plastic pipes.
Dozens of Royal Thai Army soldiers were seen resting on rocks outside the cave.
Billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla chief Elon Musk tweeted that a team from his rocket company SpaceX in Los Angeles is building a mini-submarine to help with the rescue, according to New York Times.
"Got more great feedback from Thailand. Primary path is basically a tiny, kid-size submarine... Light enough to be carried by 2 divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps. Extremely robust," Musk tweeted, adding that it would take eight hours to construct and 17 hours to transport to Thailand.
The Thai defence ministry said a team of engineers from a Musk firm with drilling and exploration know-how should reach the cave on Sunday.
The engineers were sent from Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company; SpaceX, his rocket company; and Boring, which specialises in tunnelling and construction, said a Boring spokesman.
There are two or three engineers on the ground in Thailand, with more on the way, the spokesman said. He said representatives from the companies were in discussions with the Thai government about how they could help.
Professor Edgar Choueiri from Princeton University, who specialises in rocket research, said Musk's submarine idea suggested that he imagined the Falcon rocket's hollow transfer tube - which helps move liquid oxygen to fuel the rocket's engine - would be the appropriate size to transfer the boys out of the flooded cave.
Others, however, were not as confident. Greg Moore, a regional director for the National Cave Rescue Commission, said most rescues prompt ideas that are not necessarily practical.
Musk's submarine would likely have trouble fitting through the narrowest passageways, he said.
Earlier, Mr Musk had suggested a nylon tube that would inflate like a bouncy castle to form an underwater air tunnel.
This is not Musk's first foray into emergency assistance. After Hurricane Maria caused devastating power outages in Puerto Rico last year, Tesla provided batteries to help keep the lights on. - The Straits Times/Asia News Network
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