Thailand cave rescue: officials confirm rescue operation has begun – live

Governor says ‘today is the peak of our readiness’ as 18 divers enter cave in an attempt to bring the trapped boys out

Live Reporting

By Anna Jones, Yvette Tan and Heather Chen

The Thai Navy Seals have posted a photo to their Facebook pagewhich demonstrates how local and international forces have united in the effort to free the trapped boys throughout the past fortnight.

“เรา”...ผนึกกำลังทั้งทีมไทยและทีมนานาชาติ นำน้องๆทีมหมูป่า...กลับบ้าน

This roughly translates to: “we”... the seal is both Thai team and international team leading the sisters of the boar team... go home.

Hooyah!

Volunteer workers step in

People across Thailand are flocking to help rescue operations in the little ways they can - whether they're cooking a meal for those in Tham Luang, or cleaning the uniforms of rescue workers:

While details of the rescue team are still murky, a key player in the team is Australian doctor and diverDr Richard Harris, an anaesthetist based in Adelaide.

The civilian diver was specifically asked to join the rescue mission by the British divers who found the boys on Monday night.

He has worked at South Australia’s emergency medical retrieval service (MedSTAR) as an aeromedical consultant and has previously worked with AusAID in Vanuatu providing anaesthesia and intensive care services.

In 2011 he was part of the team that worked to retrieve the body of his friend the diver Agnes Milowka from Tank Cave at Millicent.

He has also worked as an underwater cameraman on National Geographic documentaries and feature films.

On Saturday, Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop, tweeted that Australia was “sending a medical specialist with cave-diving experience to join the team of 17 [Australians] ... helping Thai government rescue 12 boys and soccer coach”.

Rescue operation 'to last two-three days'

The boys will be evacuated one-by-one over two or three days, the rescue centre is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

If you're just waking up to this extraordinary story now, here's what you need to know:

- 12 boys and their football coach have been trapped in a cave for more than two weeks. They first entered on 23 June.

- They were found by two British rescue divers some five days ago - but they've remained trapped there since as conditions had not been favourable to get them out.

- But a rescue mission to get them out is now under way. More than 1,000 people from around the globe have been involved in this massive effort.

- The first boy is expected to make his way out by 21:00 local time (14:00 GMT)

It's going to be a challenge to get the boys out of the cave, which is so narrow and winding in some places that rescuers have had to hold their oxygen tanks in front of them to squeeze through.

Health is all clear

After some two weeks underground, you might expect to find the boys in poor physical - and perhaps mental - health. But they've been given the all clear by an Australian doctor, who says the boys are in good health and are ready to go.