PHOTO: Thai PBS Thousands of locals plus tourists, along with some of the key players in the search and rescue of 13 Mu Pa (Wild Boar) footballers trapped in the flooded Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district, celebrated the first anniversary of the day the team stumbled into the Tham Luang caves setting off the epic drama that followed. On June 23 last year the 13 young men plodded innocently into the mouth of the Tham Luang Cave not knowing that a downpour would trap them inside. Activities around Chiang Rai kicked off with a 10 kilometre mini marathon, a 6 kilometre fun run, plus a 20 and 54 kilometre cycling contest
A baby elephant has been rescued from an unused drain in Bueng Kan’s Boongkla district in far north east Thailand this morning. Local villagers of Ban None Phaisarn in Tambon Khokkwang contacted officials of the Phu Wang Wildlife Sanctuary after they found the baby elephant trapped in the 2 metre deep well in a rubber plantation. About 20 officials and villagers managed to get a rope under the front part of the baby elephant and pulled it to safety from the 80 centimetre wide hole.
PHOTO: British cavers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthe Dramatic new stories out of a “Hidden Earth” cave-community event where it’s been revealed that the, now famous, Mu Pa 13 weren’t the only people trapped inside the caves in Chiang Rai. Two of the British divers who were part of the Tham Luang rescue effort, extracting the Mu Pa football team from a cave in Chiang Rai, claim that, before the much-publicised rescue, they’d earlier saved four other adults also stranded in the caves under the Tham Luang mountains. The 13 team members of the Mu Pa football team were trapped by rising flood waters after they headed to the caves on June 23 as an after-practice excursion.
PHOTO: The Nation Four more of the teenage football team have emerged from the Tham Luang caves tonight, taken to a medivac tent for a quick examination then whisked away to the Chiang Rai hospital by helicopter.
A breakdown of rescue efforts at Chiang Rai in an excellent graphic from The Nation. Last night the former Governor of Chiang Rai at a midnight media conference said that there was an urgent need to extract the 13 with the threat of more rain and the health deterioration of some of the 13 survivors
A former Thai navy SEAL has died while on the way way back to the ‘hall 3’ area from where the 13 footballers are stranded.
PHOTO: Thai Navy SEALS “Rescue teams have been giving crash courses in swimming and diving as part of complex preparations to evacuate the footballers trapped in Tham Luang cave.” Chiang Rai’s Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn says he still can’t be specific as to when and how the survivors would be taken out of the cave where they have been stranded since June 23.
The 11 missing teenagers and their football coach are still believed to be still alive but remain trapped inside the innermost sections of the cave where they’re believed to be safe but separated by flooding waters. Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn headed to the Thamluang-Khunnam Nang non park in Mae Sai district to supervise the continuation of the search and rescue operations to recover the 11 young footballers and one coach trapped inside the flooded cave since Saturday night