Six members of a Thai football team have now been brought out from a flooded cave as a dangerous mission to rescue 12 boys and their coach continues.
A senior member of the rescue team said: "I have received information that six have exited the cave.”
Four of the boys brought to the surface have been airlifted to Chiang Rai hospital 60 miles away after undergoing medical checks in a makeshift field hospital near the mouth of the cave in which they have been trapped for more than two weeks.
The boys were driven to waiting helicopters by ambulance before being whisked off for a more thorough physical examination at the region's biggest medical facility.
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand's elite navy SEAL unit are bringing the boys - some as young as 11 and weak swimmers - through narrow, submerged tunnels that have already claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver.
Sources close to the rescue operation said the the trapped boys will be divided into four groups. The first group will have four people, with the second, third and fourth containing three people. The coach will be in the final group.
The source said the first group of boys should be on their way back to the surface now. Helicopters are waiting to ferry them to the region’s largest hospital almost 60 miles away.
The rescue bid began just after 10am local time (3am GMT) and Narongsak Osatanakorn, governor of Chiang Rai province who is heading up the rescue operation, said the earliest any boy could be brought out is 9pm local time (2pm GMT).
Authorities said the rescue team included divers from "all around the world, mainly from Europe".
British divers Richard Stanton and John Volanthen discovered the boys on Monday. The British Cave Rescue Council said earlier this week they were sending five "key cave rescuers" to Thailand, some of whom were divers.
Andy Eavis, former head of the British caving association, said the divers at the scene are “the masters of the profession” and have “the best chance of anyone on earth” at successfully rescuing the boys.
BDST: 2025 HRS, JULY 8, 2018
AP
