Thai Cave Rescue Operation Resumes

The Royal Thai Navy along with international volunteers preparing to rescue 12 schoolboys and their coach. (Picture: PA).

The operation involving Thailand Navy SEALs to rescue the remaining eight boys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand is back under way.

The second phase of the operation has started a day after four boys were pulled from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the mountainous Chiang Rai region where they had spent more than two weeks underground.

Chiang Rai acting governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said the second phase began at 11am local time and authorities "hope to hear good news in the next few hours". 

Four boys were rescued on Sunday, more than two weeks after the football team were first trapped underground. 

The Thai official leading the rescue operation, which has also involved British divers, said the operation went "better than expected" and that the healthiest boys were rescued first.

Prior to the rescue, a photo published on the Thailand Navy SEAL Facebook page shows rescuers hands locked with a caption reading: "We Thai and the international teams join forces to bring the young Wild Boars home".

Authorities said the next rescue phase could begin any time during a 10-hour window starting at 07:00 on Monday (BST).

Heavy rain hit the area on Sunday night, with storms forecast throughout the week for the northern Chiang Rai province.

It was not immediately known how rainfall had impacted water levels inside the caves where an international rescue effort is being staged.

On Sunday, chief of operations governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said 13 foreign and five Thai divers are taking part in the operation.

The British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) confirmed that seven divers from the UK with "expertise in cave diving" are assisting.

Two elite British divers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, were the first rescuers to reach the group on Monday night and are believed to be part of the team.

A BCRC spokesman said:

"The UK divers are part of the core team, so they will be actively involved and that will include escorting each child out through the flooded passage.

"The operation is being supervised by the Thai authorities."

Airmen from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command conducted a combined land survey with Thai rescue authorities on 1 July at Chiang Rai.

Thai army Major General Chalongchai Chaiyakam said the entire operation to get all 13 out of the cave could take two to four days, depending on weather and water conditions.

A doctor and paramedics were standing by to provide medical attention whenever the rescue team emerges.

Rescuers have pumped millions of litres of water out of the cave network to try to extract the group through nearly a mile of tunnels where there are lowered oxygen levels.

Former Thai navy Seal Saman Kunan passed out making the dive on Friday and died.

The boys, aged 11-16, and their coach, 25, were trapped inside the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai after a football game on June 23.

Monsoon flooding cut off their escape and they have been on a rocky shelf inside a cave chamber since.

Although weak, they are largely in good health, authorities have said.