As it happened: 12 Thai boys and teacher found alive after nine days in cave
National news has been dominated by updates on the search for 12 boys and their football coach
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Rescuers have found the 12 boys and their football coach who have been missing inside a flooded mountain cave in northern Thailand for more than a week.
“They are all safe, but the mission is not completed, local Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said. "Our mission is to search, rescue and return, so far we just found them. Next mission is to bring them out from the cave and send them home.“
The Chiang Rai governor said experts would continue to drain the waters out of the cave while sending doctors and nurses to dive in to check the health of the boys and their coach.
“If the doctors say their physical condition is strong enough to be moved, they will take them out from the cave,” he said. “We will look after them until they can return to school.“
Divers from a Thai navy SEAL unit were within 500 metres of a chamber containing an elevated rock where they boys might have sought refuge.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach entered Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province on 23 June, when heavy rains flooded key passages of the cave and blocked the way out.
National news has been dominated by updates from the search, which involves more than 1,000 personnel, including rescue teams from Britain, the United States and elsewhere.
Progress towards a rescue was slow, as muddy water having risen to fill sections of the cave and forced the divers to withdraw for safety reasons.
When water levels dropped Sunday, divers went forward with a more methodical approach, deploying a rope line and extra oxygen supplies along the way.
Doctors have said the boys could survive for days without food, they needed to find water clean enough to drink.
In addition to the divers, teams have been working to pump out water as well as divert groundwater.
Other efforts have focused on finding shafts on the mountainside which might serve as a back door to the blocked-off areas where the missing may be sheltering.
Teams have been combing the mountainside looking for fissures which might lead to such shafts.
Several have been found and explorers have been able to descend into some, but so far it is not clear whether they lead to anywhere useful.
Additional reporting by agencies
Getting the group out of the cave - which some have dubbed a "labyrinth" - will be difficult.
Rescuers had discussed waiting until water levels subsided to get the boys out. Other options included teaching the group to use diving gear to navigate the flooded cave.
Relatives of the boys took shelter from heavy rain and were seen cheering, smiling and receiving calls after receiving the news they had been found. Rescuers shook hands and congratulated each other as occasional cheers broke out.
Thailand's Navy Seals celebrate near the caves as officials announce they have found the 13-person group alive (REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)
After the medics complete their evaluation of the team, they will care for the boys until they have strength to move by themselves, Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn said. From there, they will "evaluate the situation on bringing them out again later'.
It is not clear whether any of the team members are injured.
The British embassy in Thailand has tweeted about the team's discovery, calling it "great news".
Captain Jessica Tait from the U.S. Air Force's rescue support team said there were "lots of challenges" throughout the search but that the effort had brought the country together.
"When you consider it there were lots of challenges when it comes to the elements, when it comes to the elements, when it comes to different courses of actions," Tait told reporters.
"But you know what I saw, I saw Thailand coming together," she added.
The first video of the boys since they were discovered has been released.
"Meet the young wild boar team on the beach 200 meters away from Pattaya beach," wrote the Thai Navy SEALs on Facebook, referring to the raised mound in the cave where rescuers had expected to find the boys and their coach.
"We are coming, it's ok," one of the rescuers is heard saying in the video.
The boys have been provided with energy gel to eat, the Thai navy SEAL unit said on its official Facebook page.
"Power gel and sustenance equipment has been brought ... to the team ... and we've sent people to keep them company until the transport plan can begin," it said.
Family members of the missing hugged each other as they cheered the news of the discovery of the group.
Aisha Wiboonrungrueng, the mother of 11-year-old Chanin Wiboonrungrueng, smiled and hugged her family as news of their discovery spread. She said she would cook her son a Thai fried omelet, his favorite food, when he returns home.
It is understood that two British divers were the first to speak to the lost boys. They have been named in multiple media reports as Rick Stanton and John Volanthen
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