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Thai cave rescue site cleared to ‘help victims’: officials
MAE SAI, Thailand, July 8, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Thai authorities told media on
Sunday to leave a camp site near the cave where 12 boys and their coach have
been trapped for more than two weeks so that “victims” could be helped,
possibly signalling a long-awaited rescue effort to get them out.
The “Wild Boars” team has been confined to the Tham Luang cave since June
23, when they went in after practice and were hemmed in by monsoon floods.
Their plight has transfixed Thailand and the rest of the world, with more
than 1,000 journalists registered to cover the rescue staking out a small
patch of muddy land at the top of a hill near the entrance.
“Everyone who is not involved with the operations has to get out of the
area immediately,” police announced via loudspeaker at the site on Sunday
morning.
“From the situation assessment, we need to use the area to help victims.”
They gave a deadline of 9:00 am (0200 GMT) to clear out, setting off a
frenzy of moving and packing.
The order to leave the site came as irritation over the media presence
grew, and a day after the rescue mission chief said conditions were perfect
for the evacuation to begin.
It also came as fears mounted that expected rains could thwart the plan by
reflooding the cave.
Officials did not clarify on Sunday morning whether the complex effort to
dive the team out of the kilometres-long Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand
had started.
But the head of the mission, Narongsak Osottanakorn, on Saturday suggested
they would try in the coming days, even though the boys were weak and had no
previous diving experience.
“Now and in the next three or four days, the conditions are perfect (for
evacuation) in terms of the water, the weather and the boys’ health,”
Narongsak told reporters.
Sustained heavy rains could make the water rise to the shelf where the
children were sitting, reducing the area to “less than 10 square meters”, he
added.
Torrential rain pounded the area for around half an hour on Saturday
night, highlighting the urgency.
The death of a former Thai Navy Seal diver who ran out of oxygen in the
cave on Friday underscored the danger of the journey even for adept
professionals.
On Saturday another 10 members of the rescue mission — part of a team
assigned to explore the mountain to look for chimneys that might lead to the
cave — were injured when a car they were travelling in fell off a cliff.
Their injures were not believed to be serious.
The site near the cave’s entrance had swelled with media, volunteers and
onlookers since the operation started, and patience has worn thin.
Mission chief Narongsak said in recent days that medic teams had
complained about the media presence and they told him “it will be a problem
if they have a real emergency situation”.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0819 hrs