As it happened: Second Thai cave rescue attempt underway

As the world holds its breath, 12 boys and their football coach, accompanied by an elite team of rescue divers, are making a treacherous journey to safety through flooded underground caverns that have tested some of the world's best cavers.

Eight boys have been rescued so far, with the remaining four and their coach still clinging to hope. 

These live updates have now ended. 

A depiction of where the rescuers will be leading the boys through the cave system in Thailand.
A depiction of where the rescuers will be leading the boys through the cave system in Thailand. Photo credit: Newshub

3:30am: Rescuers can now operate faster than earlier after air tanks were replaced and guide rope tightened along the exit route.

2:45am: In a press conference, the head of the joint command centre coordinating the rescue operation Narongsak Osatanakorn says "We are so happy to rescue another four." 

Osatanakorn says he can't tell yet whether or not the final five left in the cave will all be rescued tomorrow.

2:15am: The rescue operation has been called off for the day, with rescuers sticking to their goal of pulling out four boys per day.

1:30am: Thai Navy Seals have confirmed earlier reports that four boys have been rescued in today's operation.

1:00am: CNN reports the rescue operation has ended for the day, leaving a total of eight boys rescued since the operation began yesterday. Four boys and their football coach remain in the cave.

12:35am: Two ambulances, believed to be carrying the sixth and seventh boys, have been seen leaving the cave site.

12:12am: CNN reports an eighth boy has been rescued. 

12:00am: CNN is reporting a further two boys have been rescued from the cave, bringing the total number of boys rescued to seven and leaving five boys plus their coach still in the cave.

11:15pm: The Guardian is reporting a sixth boy has been retrieved from the cave. Thai officials have not confirmed.

10:45pm - A fifth boy has been rescued from the cave, leaving a further seven boys and their coach still inside.

9:45pm - Reuters reports a witness says they saw a person being carried on a stretcher from the cave entrance to a waiting ambulance.

8:35pm - The second lot of boys are estimated to surface between 7:30pm and 8:30pm (local time). 

Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn says the strongest members of the remaining group will be selected for the second rescue mission. 

8:10pm - Thai officials have confirmed divers have entered the cave for a second rescue operation. 

The rescue team, which is made up of the same people who successfully extracted four boys on Sunday (local time), entered the cave at 11am on Monday.

"The factors are as good as yesterday," Narongsak Osatanakorn told media.

"The water level is not worrisome...yesterday's rain did not affect water levels inside the cave."

7:25pm - At least five ambulances have pulled up outside the entrance to the cave.

7:03pm - A second rescue attempt is now underway.

A Thai Navy official told CNN the operation "has begun and it is ongoing at the moment".

The same set of divers who rescued the first four boys have been sent into the cave, CNN reports.

6:45pm - The father of one of the trapped boys says parents haven't been told which four boys have been rescued so far.

Somboon Sompiangjai told Reuters that he and other parents were told by rescuers ahead of Sunday's rescue that the "strongest children" would be taken out first.

"We have not been told which child has been brought out," he says.

"We can't visit our boys in hospital because they need to be monitored for 48 hours."

This seems to contradict Dr Thongchai Lertwilairattanapong's claim that family will be able to visit their sons in hospital tonight. 

6:20pm - A helicopter has been spotted landing close to the rescue site, closely followed by an ambulance. 

6:05pm - The four boys who have been rescued should be able to see their families tonight, but they will not be allowed to hug or touch.

Dr Thongchai Lertwilairattanapong from Thailand's health department told local newspaper Kom Chad Lek that the boys seem to be in good health but precautions must be taken until the results of their tests are known.

"Visitors will only be allowed to meet and talk to the patients," he said.

"No hugging or touching and they need to leave a one to two metre distance from the patients until the results of their blood tests come back."

The boys are currently being treated at Chiang Rai's Prachanukroh hospital.

As well as blood tests, they've had their lungs X-rayed and their urine tested to test for serious infections like leptospirosis and meliodosis.

5:10pm - Media at the scene say the daily press briefing is hours late.

Narongsak Osatanakorn, former provincial governor and head of the joint command centre co-ordinating the cave rescue operation has addressed reporters every day at about 10am.

The briefings let the media know what the plans for each day are, but it is now past midday in Chiang Rai with no word.

4:55pm - The boys have been excused from a scheduled exam next week, according to a teacher at Mae Sai Prasitsart School.

"They will not have to follow the normal schedules," Thongyaud Kejorn told media at a press conference on Monday morning.

He said students and staff have been given mental health training ahead of the boys' return, in particular on how to avoid engaging in "talk that hurts their feelings".

A teammate of Nuttawut Takamai, who is still trapped in the cave, told media he will help his friend with his homework so that he can catch up. 

4:35pm - Students and teachers at the school half the boys attend are preparing for their return and have received training from mental health professionals.

Six of the 12 boys trapped in the cave are students at the multilingual Mae Sai Prasitsart School. On Monday students and staff held a press conference about the rescue operation.

They say they have been guided by those in the mental health profession on the boys' ordeal and their imminent return.

A sign has been erected at the school commemorating the trapped boys, and contains the phrase 'You never know when you will need your English'. It also quotes what some of the boys said to rescue divers when they were discovered after nine days in the cave.

4:05pm - The same divers who successfully rescued the first four boys will conduct the next operation because they know the cave conditions best.

Thailand's interior minister Anupong Paojinda says officials are discussing the next phase of the rescue operation. He says divers will need to place more air canisters along the underwater parts of the cave system, which could take several hours.

Mr Paojinda also says the four boys who have been released from the cave are strong and safe, but require detailed medical check-ups. 

2:35pm - The Guardian reports that their journalists at the scene have received confirmation that the second rescue mission will begin "soon".

Eight boys remain trapped in the cave, as well as their 25-year-old football coach.

1:55pm - Elon Musk has posted more videos to Twitter showing divers manoeuvring a miniature submarine around the bottom of a pool, demonstrating how the invention could fit around tight corners and contours while housing a child.

1:10pm - The four boys rescued from the Tham Luang cave in Thailand have been named. A three-and-a-half-hour mission led by British divers recovered the boys after they had spent 15 days stuck in a cave, along with eight of their peers and their football coach.

The first rescued boy was named by Thai media as Monkhol Boonpiam, 13. The second boy, according to Daily Mail, was Prajak Sutham. The third to be rescued was Nattawoot, 14, whose parents will be overjoyed to know he's safe having lost their daughter to cancer. The final boy rescued in the group was Pipat Bodhu, 15.

There are now eight other boys needing rescue, along with their 25-year-old coach. Together, the boys formed the Wild Boars football team.

There are now eight other boys needing rescue, along with their 25-year-old coach. Together, the boys formed the Wild Boars football team.
There are now eight other boys needing rescue, along with their 25-year-old coach. Together, the boys formed the Wild Boars football team. Photo credit: Twitter / Mikey Fisher

Professor Marc Wilson, a psychology lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, told Newshub the boys have had a psychological advantage being young, and that having each other will have helped keep them calm during the weeks they were trapped.

"Solitary people in such conditions quite quickly start to show signs of psychological distress," Professor Wilson says. "These folk have had each other and that will have made it easier in some ways."

12:20pm - Getting the eight remaining boys and their coach out of the cave is no easy task. Some of the deepest water is in the sections of the cave nearest to the boys, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Exactly how deep the section is isn't known, but with heavy rainfall in the area, it might get deeper.

There has been "solid rain for at least the last hour and a half here in Mai Sai [an area in the northernmost district of Chiang Rai]," said Jakarta-based Australian journalist James Massola. He said this is not good news for the rescue effort, or the nine boys and coach who are still in Tham Luang cave.

It's understood that when traveling through the caves, the rescuers, alongside the boys, will approach 'Chamber Three' and will have to remove their diving tanks and push them through a small opening. An average tank can hold about 2200 litres of air and experienced divers use about 15-20 litres of air per minute near the surface. But at deeper levels, more air is needed. 

10:10am - Thai media have named one of the four boys who were freed from the cave. Mongkhol Boonpiam, 14, was freed from the northern Thailand cave in an eight-hour operation on Sunday (local time) after spending over two weeks stranded in the cave, the Guardian reports.

Authorities have not officially named any of the rescued boys yet, and haven't even told their parents, reports say. Mongkhol's mother, Namhom, told the Guardian she only learned that her son had been freed by tracking social media. 

9:50am - Of the 12 boys trapped in the Tham Luang cave in Thailand, it was the four weakest of the group who were rescued first, according to reports. Now, the remaining eight boys and their coach could have to wait up to four days to be rescued from their position of4km inside the mountain near the border with Myanmar. 

9:00am - The next attempt to rescue the eight remaining boys and their football coach from the Tham Luang cave in Thailand could happen about three-and-a-half hours from now, according to reports. 

8:40am - It could take up to four days to complete the rescue of the remaining eight boys and their football coach from the Tham Luang cave in Thailand, according to officials cited by Associated Press. The names of the rescued boys have not yet been officially released. 

8:30am - RT posted footage on Twitter of ambulances carrying the first rescued boys from the Tham Luang cave scene in Thailand. Thirteen medical teams have been stationed outside the cave, each of which has their own helicopter and ambulance, RT reports

7:30am - Images have been released of the rescue. ITV tweeted about the new pictures released by Thai authorities from the scene of the Tham Luang cave. Rescuers pumped millions of litres of water out of the cave network to try to extract the group through nearly a mile of tunnels, according to ITV.

7:10am - It's been 15 days since the 12 Thai boys entered the cave system. It’s now been confirmed that four have been pulled out to safety. But it's been reported that the parents of those children don’t know yet.

Newshub Correspondent Conor Whitten confirmed to The AM Show on Monday that it's raining in the rescue area and that the rescue mission is now a "race against time".

"Ever since the rescue operation began, [the rescue team] moved quickly because the monsoon rains were coming. They managed to get the water levels down to their lowest level yet yesterday, but all of this rain that is falling around me is going to be filling up the water in that cave."

"More than two weeks after these boys were first trapped by rising flood waters in Tham Luang cave the first four boys have been rescued. That feat is even more remarkable because they had to dive 1km to safety. Some of these boys cannot even swim."

But rain is falling in the area and the rescue effort has been stalled for now. The rescuers need to resupply their oxygen tanks and also need to rest and get ready to go again. The question is: will they be able to go back in today?

"There's 30mm of rain expected and we're all hoping that we'll see more boys come out. There are now eight boys left in the cave with their coach," said Conor.

One of the rescued boys has been identified but not officially. When the boys came out of the cave they were taken to a hospital in nearby Chiang Rai. It's possible they were taken there directly before the parents had a chance to speak to them. 

The location of the boys' rescue in Thailand, near the border of Myanmar.
The location of the boys' rescue in Thailand, near the border of Myanmar. Photo credit: Newshub

6:10am - Newshub Correspondent Conor Whitten told The AM Show on Monday morning authorities running the rescue mission in Thailand didn’t expect that it could "go this well".

"Overnight we got absolutely fantastic news," he said, recalling the moment it was announced some of the boys had been rescued. "At the media centre there were cheers and applause as the first chopper went overhead carrying the first of the boys to hospital.

Newshub Correspondent Conor Whitten spoke to The AM Show on Monday live from Thailand.
Newshub Correspondent Conor Whitten spoke to The AM Show on Monday live from Thailand. Photo credit: The AM Show

"We can confirm that four of the boys are now safe and in a good condition. The Governor of Chiang Rai province says the boys' health is perfect and made it out of the cave well ahead of schedule - three hours ahead of estimates."

There have been reports that parents are unsure which of the boys have been rescued. The authorities wouldn’t confirm which of the boys had been rescued. However, the missing boys' parents are waiting outside the cave waiting for news. 

Channel News Asia Indochina Correspondent Pichayada said it's pouring with rain at the Tham Luang cave complex: "Authorities said weather, water levels inside caves could affect evacuation."

6:00am - The California tunnel company run by Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk continues to have a presence at the rescue site in Thailand.

The Boring Company has four engineers who are on standby to offer "support in any way the government deems useful," said spokesman Sam Teller. The Boring Company is an infrastructure and tunnel construction company founded by Elon Musk in 2016.

On Saturday, Mr Musk tweeted that he was working with a team from SpaceX to build a "tiny kid-size submarine" to rescue the boys. He wrote, "Will continue testing in LA in case needed later or somewhere else in the future."

 

5:45am (NZ time) - One of the boys rescued from the cave has been identified as Mongkhol Boonpiam, 14. According to local media, the boy's mother had been sleeping at the rescue site alongside other worried parents.

5:30am (NZ time) - The four boys rescued from the cave were said to have been brought out on stretchers. Network Ten Australia journalist Daniel Sutton said on Twitter the boys were taken via helicopter to hospital. He said the rescue mission would "resume after masks/gear" were checked over and tanks were replenished.

BBC Myanmar Correspondent Nick Beake said the main hospital in Chiang Rai, which is about an hour from the cave where the boys have been trapped, had received two ambulances.  

4:00am (NZ time) - It was confirmed by officials that four boys rescued from the inside the Tham Luang cave complex had been taken to hospital. To prepare for the next rescue, the rescue team suspended the operation for 10-20 hours at 9pm Sunday (2am local time).

Thai journalist Saksith Saiyasombut tweeted on Sunday that the Facebook page of the Navy SEALs suggested that the cave rescue operations had ended for the day.

Channel 4 News Asia Correspondent Jonathan Miller said monsoon rain has been falling torrentially at the cave site in Thailand. There are still eight boys that need to be rescued, plus their coach.

"So far so good but the rain means the cave system will be filling up again," he said. "This remains a war against water and a race against time."

One cave explorer who has been inside the Tham Luang cave complex described it a "labyrinth", adding it was much more difficult to navigate than any he had experienced. 

1:00am (NZ time) - United States President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Thailand, saying the US is working closely with the Thai government to help get all the children out of the cave safely.

"Very brave and talented people!" he said.