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A total of 11 members of a Thai youth football team trapped in a flooded cave for 18 days have now been rescued. While eight had been rescued as at Monday, three more were rescued and carried out on stretchers to waiting ambulances, leaving just one boy and their coach still stuck underground.
According to DailyMail UK, relatives of the one of the Wild Boar FC players said boy number nine was brought out shortly after 4pm local time (10am Nigerian time), and number ten some 15 minutes later. The 11th rescued child emerged an hour after the ninth.
Thai Navy SEALs are leading the rescue operation at the Tham Luang Cave in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand. The governor of the rescue mission said Tuesday’s operation will be more difficult than the previous two days due to the increased number of people who need to be evacuated, but he expects that ‘everybody will be out today.’
As well as the remaining players and their 25-year-old coach, there are four Thai Navy SEALs – including a medic – who will be extracted once the team are freed today. They have been staying with the trapped school boys since they were discovered huddled together on a muddy ledge 2,620ft (800 metres) underground on July 2.
Efforts are on to evacuate everyone before the monsoon rains make operations impossible.