The desperate search continued on Tuesday for 12 children and their coach from a local football team who went missing in a Chiang Rai flooded cave on Saturday afternoon.
Rescue teams planned on Tuesday to search to the end of the limestone cave that is believed to be the fourth longest cave in Thailand.
So far, searchers have found children’s slippers, footprints and palm prints on the wall of the cave.
Rescue teams have pumped water out of the cave into a nearby reservoir to assist divers led by Thai Navy’s SEAL unit. For the past three days divers have searched through muddy waters as levels have risen following heavy rains.
The missing children, aged between 13 and 16, are members of the local football team, the Mu Pa Academy Mae Sai football club.
The teenagers went into the cave with the team’s deputy coach Ekkapon Intawongse, 25, as part of their training. They had food, water and first aid kits.
The team’s head coach, Nopparat Kantawongse said on Monday that this was the third time the team had made the trip into the cave. He said he was confident that Ekkapon would take good care of the children because he is part of the medical staff for the team.