Video Editor: Vishal Kumar
Heavy rainfall stymied efforts to rescue members of a youth soccer team trapped in a cave in northern Thailand by flooding underground passages faster than water can be pumped out, a senior official told The Associated Press on Wednesday, 27 June.
Thai soccer team of 12 boys aged between 11-16 years and their 25-year-old coach went missing on 23 June, after all of them entered a cavern in Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand.
The Tham Luang cave complex extends several kilometres with narrow passageways and uneven ground and is known to flood severely in rainy season.
Authorities have expressed hope that the group must have found dry places within the cave to wait, and that they are healthy enough to stay safe, reported AP.
“We still have hope. All agencies are trying their best. We have a challenge from the water level that keep rising,” Thai army chief Gen. Chalermchai Sittisart told reporters at the site. “We are adding more pumps to lower the level down so that the SEAL team could operate better.”
Thailand's prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited the flooded cave complex and urged their relatives to not give up hope.
Prayuth also said the priority of the rescue operation is still to drain the water out from the cave, lowering flooded water inside so that divers can access farther chambers where the group may be trapped in.
The most important thing today is to drain the water. If there is no more rain, we can drain a significant amount. If water is drained, passages will open for the rescue team to make their way in further. They entered the big chamber, but the passage (to the next chamber) is narrow and flooded. And the reason that they couldn’t go through is the mud slides down and keeps filling up the passage.Prayuth Chan-Ocha, Prime Minister, Thailand
Police said that local authorities, rescue workers and Navy divers were now looking for the boys. A US military team and British cave experts have also joined the rescue effort.
While the rescue team battles to search for the kids, parents and relatives wait outside the cave praying for the well being of their loved ones.
(With inputs from AP)
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