Mae Sai(Thailand): Rescuers braced for a long and difficult evacuation for 13 members of a Thai youth football team found alive in a cave nine days after they went missing, as food and medicine was shuttled to them though muddy waters on Tuesday.
The 12 young boys and their football coach were discovered rake thin and hungry on a mound of mud surrounded by water late on Monday, ending the agonising search that captivated a nation.
But the focus quickly shifted to the tricky task of how to evacuate them safely from the still-flooded caverns. Much-needed food and medical supplies including high-calorie gels and paracetamol reached them on Tuesday as rescuers prepared for an extraction operation.
The Thai military said it is providing months’ worth of food and diving lessons to the boys to help them out of the waterlogged Tham Luang network in the country’s monsoon-drenched north.
“We will send additional food for four months and train all 13 to dive while continuing to drain water,” Navy Captain An-and Surawan said.
