MAE SAI, Thailand — When the owner of the youth soccer team trapped in a cave complex in northern Thailand received a call from one of the boys’ parents just after 5:30 p.m. Sunday, he knew almost instantly: The first of the Wild Boars was free.
“You could tell by his voice,” said Kamol Chanthapun, one of the founders of the Moo Pa, or Wild Boars, soccer squad that has been stranded by floodwaters since June 23. “It was the first time he sounded light.”
Four members of the team were rescued Sunday by divers who helped them navigate a treacherous path out of the cave. Ambulances raced through the streets of Mae Sai and helicopters circled overhead. The provincial governor said the four were checked out in a field hospital near the cave and then flown 37 miles south to a hospital in Chiang Rai, where an entire floor has been reserved for the rescue effort.
“Everybody is perfectly healthy,” said Narongsak Osatanakorn, the outgoing governor of Chiang Rai province. “The operation is going better than expected.”
But eight young players and their 25-year-old coach remain deep in the vast cave network, where they face depleting levels of oxygen and the prospect of rising water. Because all the equipment was used up in Sunday’s rescue attempts, the next push would have to wait until Monday morning, Narongsak said.