Heroic doctor Richard Harris, last to exit Thai cave, emerges to discover his father has died

Australian doctor Richard Harris was the last person to leave the flooded Thai cave on Tuesday where the Wild Boars soccer team was rescued. Photo: AP.

BANGKOK (AP): The last member of the rescue team to leave the Thai cave where 12 boys and their soccer coach were rescued, Australian doctor Richard Harris, emerged to discover that his father had died.

Harris’s boss Andrew Pearce says in a statement the father had died on Tuesday shortly after the last of the 13 team members was freed from the cave.

Pearce says: “This is clearly a time of grief for the Harris family, magnified by the physical and emotional demands of being part of this week’s highly complex and ultimately successful rescue operation.”