12 boys, soccer coach feared missing in flooded Thailand cave

Rising water levels prevented divers from movingdeeper into a cave complex in northern Thailand flooded by heavy rains, forcing them to suspend the search Monday for 12 boys andtheir soccer coach

The group has been missing for two days, but officialssaid they believe they're still alive.

The boys, aged 11 to 15, are believed to have entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province with their 25-year-old coach late Saturday afternoon. A mother reported that her son did notreturn from soccer practice that day, setting off the search.

The rising water frustrated efforts by the rescuers, including navy SEAL divers, to search farther in the cave, which is thought tobe about six to eight kilometres long and contain some largechambers. By Monday evening, officials made the call to temporarilypull out.

"We went in a few kilometres, and were able to enter a second chamber behind the entrance. In that chamber, there was an areawhere I saw shoes and bags left behind on the ground. We believe thestudents have gone further in," said Lt. Naponwath Homsai, a SEALteam member.

He said they would wait for water pumps to be brought in, which he hoped wouldhelp them access another passageway.

'Where is my child?'

Bicycles, backpacks and soccer cleats the boys left behindremained at the entrance of the cave. The area was filled withsoldiers and rescue personnel.

Mothers and other relatives of the missing boys held a prayersession Monday evening at the entrance to the cave, where there is ashrine with a statue of Buddha. They laid flowers and then somewalked inside, where their cries could be heard echoing off thewalls.

"My son, come on out! I am waiting for you here!" one womancried. Another kneeled down near the bicycles and prayed, asking"Where is my child?"

Namhom Boonpiam, whose 13-year-old son Mongkol is among themissing, said she had been waiting at the entrance since Saturdaynight.

"I haven't slept, and I hope that all of them can come outall safe and sound," she said. "My son is a strong boy. I still have hope."

Officials remained optimistic the boys would be found safe.

Chote Narin, an officer at Mae Sai district police station, saidMonday afternoon that footprints and handprints were found insidethe cave complex.

"We've found traces but no people yet," he said.

He said the fact that the boys are athletes shouldhelp them endure the situation.

Parts of cave flooded

Despite heavy rain and rising waters, officials are hopeful thatthere are still safe spaces in the cave complex, Chiang Rai DeputyGov.Passakorn Bunyalak told a news conference.

"We're confident that the kids should still be in goodcondition," he said, noting that rescuers had seen nothing inside the cave to indicate otherwise.

Getting deeper into the cave has required lots of oxygen andspecial diving skills, which would also complicate rescue effortsonce the boys are found, Passakorn said. He said divers might haveto first bring food in and the boys might need to wait out the floodor learn the basics of scuba to get out.

Officials said parts of the cave were flooded under at least five metres of water.

The cave, cut into a mountainside in far northern Thailand near the border with Myanmar, is a local tourist attraction but can floodseverely during the rainy season, which runs from June to October.

Kamolchai Kotcha, an official at the forest park where the caveis located, said Monday morning that attempts to reach a large chamber about four kilometres from the entrance of the cave had failed as the passage is extremely small, "flooded and coveredwith sand and mud."

According to Kamolchai, tourists trapped in the cave by past floods have been rescued after the water receded a few days later.

'Route finding can be difficult'

In The Caves of Northern Thailand,an online guidebook lastupdated this year, the cave is described as only explorable fromNovember to June due to flooding. It says the cave has an"impressive entrance chamber" that is about 80 metres long and leads to an easy walk along "spacious passageways" thatlast for about a kilometre.

"At the end of the marked path the passage enters a series ofchambers, boulder collapses and boulder chokes where route findingcan be difficult," it says.

After a few hundred metres, the cave narrows to a passage twometreswide and threemetreshigh, it says. Afterthat area, the cave splits off into different directions, includingseveral that lead to other chambers, pools of water or places withhigh "avens" (shafts that reach the surface).

Chote, of the Mae Sai police, said a helicopter was sent Mondayafternoon to survey at least one of those shafts.

Anukoon Sorn-ek, a geographer and expert on the Tham Luang NangNon cave, said divers have made it about threekilometres into the complex. He said the cave maintains a relatively stabletemperature of about 25 C.

He said the only way to get the boys out would be for them todive.

"But they have to be found first," he said.