Rescuers to drill hole in search for young soccer team missing in flooded Thai cave

Thai rescueworkers will drill a narrow shaft into a cave where 12schoolboys and their soccer coach are believed to be trapped byfloodwaters, the interior minister said on Wednesday,the fourth day of a search that has been hampered by heavy rain.

The boys, between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-oldassistant coach went missing on Saturday after soccer practicewhen they set out to explore the Tham Luang cave complex, eventhough it is known to be prone to flooding in the rainy season.

Thai volunteers and military teams, including 45 navy SEALunit members, have been deployed at the flooded cave complex,which runs 10 kilometresunder a mountain in the northernprovince of Chiang Rai.

"Tomorrow we can drill into the mountain but we won't drilltoo deep. Just enough to allow people through," Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters in Bangkok."We are trying every way to find the children," he added.

Desperate search continues for missing Thai children

6 years ago

Duration 1:12

Soccer team and coach believed to be trapped in cave system

While distraught relatives and friends gathered at the mouthof the cave, rescue workers pumped water out, but the persistentheavy rain has slowed their progress.

"Water is the biggest challenge. There is a lot of debrisand sand that gets stuck while pumping," armySgt.Kresada Wanaphum told Reuters.

"We have to switch out units because there is not enough airin there," he said, before heading back down the cave.

The biggest challenge is the water. Massive amounts.- Vern Unsworth, British cave explorer

According to messagesthe boys exchanged before setting off,they had taken flashlights and some food.

Apart from some footprints and marks left by their muddyhands near the cave entrance, no one has been seen or heard ofthem since Saturday evening, and the race to find them hasdominated Thai news cycles.

"I'm confident all are still alive," Prime Minister PrayuthChan-ocha told reporters.

'Massive amounts' of water

Vern Unsworth, a British cave explorer based in Chiang Raiwho has joined the search, said a lot of water was seeping intothe cave from two directions.

"There is a watershed inside, which is unusual, it meansthere is water coming in from two directions," Unsworth told Reuters.

"The biggest challenge is the water. Massive amounts."

Three foreign divers coming from Britain were expected toreach Thailand on Wednesday evening to join the search, theinterior minister said.

Thailand has asked the United States for survivor detectionequipment, Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurattold reporters.

"We hope this equipment will allow us to locate the spotsthat we need to reach faster."

A guide book described the Tham Luang cave as having an"impressive entrance chamber" leading to a marked path. It thendescribes the end of the path and the start of a series ofchambers and boulders.

"This section of the cave has not been thoroughly explored.After a couple of hundred metres the cave reduces in size to amud floored passage 2 metres wide and 3 metres high," authorMartin Ellis wrote in The Caves of Thailand Volume 2.

Team head coachNopparat Kantawong, who did notattend practice on Saturday, said the boys had visited the cavesseveral times, and he was hopeful that the boys would sticktogether and stay strong.

"They won't abandon each other."