All 13 Are Free From Thailand Cave After Weeks of Ordeal

It took dozens of divers, hundreds of volunteers and 18 days to do it, but the rescue operation at Tham Luang Cave in Thailand has succeeded.

The final stage of the extraction mission began at 10:08 a.m. local time Tuesday, with 19 divers dispatched to the remote cavern where the last four members of the Wild Boar soccer team and their coach have been sheltering since June 23.

“Twelve Boars and coach are out of the cave. Everyone is safe. Now we are waiting to welcome our frogmen,” read a post on the Thai navy SEAL Facebook page Tuesday night.

Soon after, another post went up: “We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what. All the thirteen Wild Boars are now out of the cave.”

Around 9:40 p.m., Thai officials confirmed that the four-member military team that had stayed with the boys in their cavern for days had also left the cave together. With that, the rescue operation is officially complete.

On Sunday and Monday, around 100 divers, medical personnel and support staff evacuated eight soccer teammates. The rescue effort involved guiding boys with little in the way of swimming skills through passageways filled with churning water.

The operation did claim one life: Saman Gunan, a 38-year-old former navy SEAL diver who volunteered to help in the search and rescue. He died early Friday after carrying air tanks into the flooded cave, losing consciousness underwater after running out of air himself.

At certain points, the underwater crevices through which people had to squeeze were barely wide enough to accommodate an adult human body, according to Narongsak Osatanakorn, head of the search operation, and a diver who had explored the cave complex.

In a news conference after the rescue, Narongsak said that all of the team members were safe at the hospital at Chiang Rai.

“I would like to say we have good news: We got five people out safely,” he said. He added that family members would be able to visit the boys, though separated by a window.

They will spend at least a week warding off possible infection, according to Dr. Jesada Chokedamrongsuk, the permanent secretary to Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health.

Two of the boys rescued Sunday are suffering from mild pneumonia, said Dr. Tosthep Buthong, the Chiang Rai public health chief, at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Jintrakarn Sriwanithkul, 18, a student at the Maesai Prasitsart School attended by six of the team members, was at the school as the news broke that the entire team had been saved.

“It’s amazing news!” he said.

Like many of the players who became trapped, he had been inside Tham Luang Cave before.

“When I first heard about them being missing, I thought they’d come out in two to three days because they knew the cave well,” he said.

“It’s scary there but also pretty,” he added. “I guess a lesson from this is that natural disasters can happen, especially during rainy season.”

In the town of Mae Sai, the abbot at the temple where the young coach, Ekkapol Chantawong, works, was overjoyed.

“I’m so happy, but it’s not just for Ek and the team,” said the abbot, Prayuth Jetiyanukarn. “The whole world has been watching over these 18 days and they are celebrating with us.”

The abbot was overcome and started crying.

“Because Ek is an orphan, I feel like his father. And Ek felt responsible for the 12 Wild Boars so I felt like I had 13 worries on my shoulders,” he said. “It was 18 days but it felt like years.”