“They are all safe, but the mission is not completed, local Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said. "Our mission is to search, rescue and return, so far we just found them. Next mission is to bring them out from the cave and send them home.“
The Chiang Rai governor said experts would continue to drain the waters out of the cave while sending doctors and nurses to dive in to check the health of the boys and their coach.
“If the doctors say their physical condition is strong enough to be moved, they will take them out from the cave,” he said. “We will look after them until they can return to school.“
Progress has been slow as divers need to widen parts of a narrow 100 metre stretch they were unable to pass through without their air cylinders becoming jammed.
"This is today's aim is to widen this hole," Chiang Rai's governor, Narongsak Osatanakorn, told reporters on Monday.
Heavy seasonal rains have hampered the search operation, with divers groping their way along the cave walls, barely able to see in the muddy water, but the pumps had helped to bring down water levels in recent days.
Mr Narongsak said an operations centre has been set up in the third chamber, about a mile from entrance to the cave.
"Yesterday we carried in 200 air cylinders. Today we aim to have 600 air cylinders in the cave, so the team can operate and stay in the cave without coming out," he said.
Once more personnel are in place, a search will also be made of the right turn at the T-junction, he added.
At Mae Sai Prasitsart school, where six of the missing boys studied, special prayers were held for the junior soccer team during the morning assembly on Monday, Reuters reports.
"I hope all the spirits that we cannot see please help us by releasing the 13 people who are our friends and our brothers," teacher Takkapong Thammarangsi said as he led the prayers.
Pansa Namyi, 15, said he shared a love of sports with his friend who was among the missing.
"I want to tell him that I am waiting," Pansa said.
Rescue divers have spent much of Monday making preparations for what is hoped will be a final push in their search for the 12 boys and their football coach.
They have been missing for more than a week in a cave in northern Thailand.
Chiang Rai's provincial governor, Narongsak Osatanakorn, said the divers concentrated on securing a rope line and placing oxygen tanks along the narrow passageway they think will lead them to the boys, in Tham Luang cave.
"In theory, human beings can last 30 days [without food]," Mr Narongsak told reporters. "We hope and believe that is the case. We all still have hope."
He said it was expected that in their condition, the boys would at first not be able to move their limbs, but medical teams would initially treat them in place.
He said the diving teams included doctors who were already inside the cave.
"These are challenging conditions and there's a lot of consideration for safety as well as, the environment outside is contributing to the environment inside," said US Air Force Captain Jessica Tait, who is part of a 30-strong US military team assisting in the search operation, referring to the rain that has been flooding the cave.
"So I'd say, yeah, it's an accurate statement that it's challenging."
Public anticipation for a rescue has been high since Sunday, but officials have avoided setting a timetable for the search and rescue operation, although they remain publicly optimistic.
Teams have been combing the mountainside looking for fissure that might lead to shafts that could lead to currently blocked-off areas. Several have been found and explorers have been able to descend into some, but so far it is not clear whether they lead anywhere useful.
The governor of Chiang Rai, Narongsak Osatanakorn said that the group are safe following the massive search operation in the Tham Luang Nang Non caves.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared when flooding trapped them after they entered Tham Luang Nang Non cave on 23 June.
Navy divers and rescue workers entered a narrow passageway early on Monday after passing through a key chamber on Sunday whose high, murky waters had previously blocked their progress.
Governor Narongsak made clear that despite the good news, the operation is not over until all the children and their coach have been rescued. "We found them safe. But the operation isn't over," he said.
"They are all safe, but the mission is not completed. Our mission is to search, rescue and return, so far we just found them. Next mission is to bring them out from the cave and send them home.“
The governor said they would continue to drain the waters out of the cave while sending doctors and nurses to dive in to check the health of the boys and their coach.
"If the doctors say their physical condition is strong enough to be moved, they will take them out from the cave," he said. "We will look after them until they can return to school.“
Thailand's prime minister has thanked international experts and rescuers who helped find the 12 boys and their soccer coach who had been missing in a cave for more than a week.
The Prime Minister's Office said Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha "wishes to thank the tremendous efforts of all international units that have come to assist the Thai authorities in rescuing the youth football team that was stuck in the caves in Chiang Rai. The Royal Thai Government and the Thai people are grateful for this support and cooperation, and we all wish the team a safe and speedy recovery."
Medical teams have been sent inside the cave to assess the group's health before deciding how to get them out, Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn said. He estimated the assessment effort would take about four hours.
The rescue workers have reached "Pattaya beach," a nickname they gave to an elevated mound inside the cave, according to Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn. He added that the area – where rescuers thought the team may have sought refuge – appeared to have been flooded by the rains.
Divers from a Thai navy SEAL unit were within 500 metres of a chamber containing an elevated rock where they boys might have sought refuge.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach entered Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province on 23 June, when heavy rains flooded key passages of the cave and blocked the way out.
National news has been dominated by updates from the search, which involves more than 1,000 personnel, including rescue teams from Britain, the United States and elsewhere.
Progress towards a rescue was slow, as muddy water having risen to fill sections of the cave and forced the divers to withdraw for safety reasons.
When water levels dropped Sunday, divers went forward with a more methodical approach, deploying a rope line and extra oxygen supplies along the way.
Doctors have said the boys could survive for days without food, they needed to find water clean enough to drink.
In addition to the divers, teams have been working to pump out water as well as divert groundwater.
Other efforts have focused on finding shafts on the mountainside which might serve as a back door to the blocked-off areas where the missing may be sheltering.
Teams have been combing the mountainside looking for fissures which might lead to such shafts.
Several have been found and explorers have been able to descend into some, but so far it is not clear whether they lead to anywhere useful.
Additional reporting by agencies
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