Thai cave rescue: Rescue operations to resume in 10-20 hours

Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn on Sunday said that rescue operations to retrieve the remaining boys and a coach of the Wild Boars football team from the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai will resume in the next 10-20 hours.

Addressing a press conference here after the first day of the rescue operations were completed, Osotthanakorn said the divers will focus on replacing the oxygen tanks so that the rescue operations would resume for the remaining boys and the coach of the soccer team, CNN reported.

Describing it as a "very smooth operation", the Chiang Rai Governor said the authorities were to make sure that all conditions were stable for the next phase of evacuations.

Meanwhile, rescue workers are scheduled to hold a strategy meeting to discuss the resuming of rescue and evacuation operations.

The rescued boys have been admitted to the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital for medical treatment. The hospital is situated an hour away from the Tham Luang cave.

CNN quoted Eve Tapanya from the Thai Tourist Police saying the rescued boys' conditions were "not that bad and they're ok."

So far, six boys of the Wild Boar football team were rescued from the flooded cave in Chiang Rai, according to several media reports.

Authorities are racing against time to rescue the boys and the coach of the soccer team, who have been stranded in the cave for more than two weeks now.

A team of 13 international cave diving experts and five Thai Navy SEALs are carrying out rescue operations, according to a report of the CNN.

Osottanakorn told CNN that apart from the Thai divers, the rescuers were from other countries such as the United States, Europe, Australia and China.

The medical teams will continue to monitor the health of the boys even as they remained trapped inside the cave.

On Friday, a Thai diver had died while attempting to rescue the trapped group.

The footballers who were found by the British divers on late Monday night, with footage showing them visibly weak and huddled on a mud mound deep inside the cave.

They were trapped in the flooded cave for nine days before being found. Aged between 11 and 16 years, the boys were members of the Wild Boar soccer team.