International
1 rescuer feared dead in bid to save trapped Thai soccer team
Tragedy struck during an operation in Thailand to save 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped inside a flooded cave complex when a rescuer died in the line of duty.
Reports say the rescuer identified as Samarn Poonan, a former member of Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit who was part of the rescue team in Chiang Rai, died on Thursday night after entering the cave to lay oxygen tanks along a potential exit route.
“The conditions in the cave are tough,” Admiral Apakorn Yuukongkaew, commander of the SEALS unit, told reporters on Friday.
“Once he placed the oxygen tanks he became unconscious on his way back. His buddy tried to administer first aid, when there was no response he tried to move him,” Apakorn said.
“We won’t let his life be in vain. We will carry on”.
Volunteers at the Tham Luang cave in northern Chiang Rai province were shaken by Samarn’s death.
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“A navy SEAL just passed away last night. How about a 12-year-old boy that will have to pass through?” Rafael Aroush, an Israeli living in Thailand and volunteer who arrived at the cave site on Thursday, told Reuters.
“There will be rain and many things could go wrong. I don’t want to say it, but it could be a catastrophe,” he said.
Hours before the incident, Thai officials revealed that the trapped football team are now practicing wearing dive masks in a bid to hasten their extraction from the cave.
A new video footage of the Thai football team trapped deep inside a cave shows the boys laughing and saying they are doing well, 11 days after they went missing.
A video posted on the Facebook page of the Thai navy SEALs on Wednesday depicts the pale, thin boys, many of them wrapped in foil warming blankets, introducing themselves and saying they are “in good health”.
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