The latest developments about the 12 boys and their soccer coach, who have been trapped for more than two weeks in a vast, flooded cave.
[UPDATED at 3:52 a.m. Eastern, July 9]
The Times has reporters on the scene and will be providing updates regularly. Go here to see maps and diagrams of how the rescue is unfolding.
• On Monday, divers were still replacing air tanks along the rescue route in preparation to bring more boys out. Thai officials said the four rescued boys were doing well in the hospital.
• Rain in the cave area was torrential on Sunday, as the extraction was underway, but had calmed down again through Monday morning. .
As celebrations of the rescue of four boys from the Tham Luang Cave subsided in the northern Thai town of Mae Sai, an anxious vigil continued for the remaining eight soccer team members and their young coach, who have been trapped since June 23 in the flooded cave complex.
Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters that the rescued boys were in stable health. Mongkol Boonpiam, one of the boys who was listed among the rescued on a Facebook messenger group used by some of the parents, was considered to have been the weakest boy among the trapped team.
Their coach, Ekkapol Chantawong, is still in the cave, and is also ailing because he has been dedicated to getting the boys supplies first, according to the Wild Boars’ head coach, Nopparat Khanthawong.
On Sunday evening local time, Narongsak Osottanakorn, the head of the search operation, said that its next phase would begin within 20 hours, as soon as air tanks used by divers were replenished along the treacherous underwater route leading to the remote cavern where the soccer team had sheltered.
But by early Monday afternoon, there was no official update on the extrication campaign, which has already claimed the life of one former Thai Navy SEAL member who had been placing air tanks in the cave complex.
Mr. Narongsak cautioned on Sunday that weather conditions had to hold if the rescue attempt was to continue. Monsoon downpours soaked the region on Sunday but subsided on Monday.
Sunday’s rescue required 90 divers, more than half of them foreign, to navigate flooded and pitch-black terrain, some of it menaced by strong currents. Few, if any, of the trapped boys know how to swim, and the four who were brought out were shepherded by divers who cradled them and provided them with full-face masks.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was expected to visit the cave area on Monday afternoon. Mr. Prayuth, who took power in a 2014 coup, said on Monday morning that he would not interfere with a continuing operation.
“It’s up to them to deliberate,” he said. “I cannot order them on the steps of their operation.”
—Hannah Beech and Muktita Suhartono, in Mae Sai
Four of the team members have safely made the harrowing underwater passage out of the cave and were at the hospital, the head of search operations, Narongsak Osottanakorn, said at a news conference on Sunday night.
He said there would be a delay of at least 10 hours until other boys were rescued, to allow time for more air tanks and gear to be replaced along their route.
Mr. Narongsak, who until a few days ago was also the provincial governor, said that 10 cave divers had accompanied the boys all through the journey. “They hugged the boys beneath them while they were wearing full-face masks,” he said.
The plan had been for the first team member to emerge around 9 p.m. local time, but things went more quickly: The first came out at around 5:40 p.m., he said. The fourth emerged around 7:50.
“Today, everything was very smooth,” he said. “We have been practicing for the past three to four days, rain or shine.”
The Facebook page for the Thai Navy SEALS announced that “Wild Boar No. 4 is out of the cave,” in a reference to the team’s mascot name, the Wild Boars.
[ Read here about how the ordeal started: A team-building adventure to the cave after a regular Saturday practice turned into an emergency after monsoon rains struck.]
A Facebook Messenger group organized by some of the players’ parents identified two of the rescued players. One, Mongkol Boonpiam, was said to among those ailing the worst. The other player was identified as Prajak Sutham.
Others were reported to have made progress along the cave network. Experts said the journey from the boys’ cavern to the cave entrance, including long passages completely submerged in murky, rushing water, took even the best cave divers in the world six hours to navigate.
— Richard C. Paddock and Navaon Siradapuvadol, near Tham Luang Cave
In the town of Mae Sai, where the trapped boys’ soccer team is based, residents and family members were cheering the sound of every helicopter and ambulance they heard, in an uproar of celebration at the news that four boys had been taken out of the cave on Sunday.
“I am so happy!” said Kamon Chanthapun, an adviser to the team. “I was so worried because they are just children, stuck for so long in the dark.”
Young men rode in the back of flatbed trucks, cruising the streets and cheering.
Mae Sai is a town that thrives on border commerce. Some residents have relatives across the border in Myanmar, and thousands cross over from that country each day to work, trade or attend school in Thailand.
One of the boys in the cave, Adul Sam-on, is a student at the Ban Wiang Phan school here. Inside, students had written messages on heart-shaped sticky notes placed up in a big heart shape on a bulletin board with optimistic messages. “Hopefully our friend can come out safely,” read one.
Adul was the boy who spoke to British divers in English in the video that announced to the world that the team had finally been found, after 10 days stuck in the flooded Tham Luang Cave.
The head coach for the soccer team, Nopparat Khanthawong, who did not enter the cave with the others two weeks ago, said: “I’m happy that children are coming out. All I can do is to send my prayers and support to the children and rescuers.”
He added: “We don’t know the physical condition of the boys. Please keep them coming!”
— Hannah Beech and Muktita Suhartono, in Mae Sai
A Thai official has said that some members of the boys’ soccer team trapped in the flooded Tham Luang Cave network don’t know how to swim, further complicating the rescue effort.
That may surprise people from countries where swim lessons are a rite of passage for most children. But in Southeast Asia, not knowing how to swim is normal.
A key reason is that many mothers in the region believe that teaching their children to swim will increase the risk of them drowning, said Michael Linnan, the technical director at the Alliance for Safe Children, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that has worked extensively in the region.
Dr. Linnan said it was not uncommon to see rates of swimming in low- and middle-income countries that is “well below” 20 percent, even among sailors, fishermen and others who earn their living on the water.
Drowning is a leading cause of death among children in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Unicef said in a 2012 report. Unlike in high-income countries, the report said, the danger to children typically comes not from swimming pools but from daily exposure to water and “spontaneous actions that put them at risk.”
In Thailand, the Health Ministry reported in 2014 that drowning was the primary cause of death among children under 15. It said an average of four children in Thailand died every day from drowning, a rate five to 15 times higher than those for developed countries.
Dr. Linnan, a former medical epidemiologist for the U. S. Centers for Disease Control, said Thailand has made “enormous strides” in the last decade toward preventing child injury and morbidity. For example, he said, the government established a national day care program, a move that helped to prevent drownings among very young children.
But he said he hoped recent events at Tham Luang Cave would be a “teachable moment,” highlighting a need on a national scale for further efforts to prevent drowning.
“I hope that will be the silver lining in this cloud,” he said.
— Mike Ives in Hong Kong
One boy promised to do his chores when he gets home. Another asked for barbecued pork.
In letters home, written on water-stained paper and posted Saturday on the Thai Navy SEALs’ Facebook page, the trapped boys and their soccer coach sought to reassure their families that they were in good hands and in good spirits.
“Don’t worry about me,” wrote Ekkarat “Bew” Wongsookchan, 13. “I’ve been away for two weeks. I’ll help mom every day. I’ll be back soon.”
“I’m happy in here,” wrote Panumat “Mix” Saengdee, 14. “The SEAL team takes very good care of us.”
The boys’ parents had written to them earlier. The letters, carried by divers making six-hour trips in each direction, are the first direct communication between the parents and their sons. Attempts to establish a phone line to the cavern where the boys are trapped have not yet been successful.
“Mom, Dad, I love you guys, and little sister Toi,” wrote Pipat “Nick” Poti, 15. “If I get out please take me to a pork barbecue place. I love you Dad, Mom.”
The boys’ coach, Ekkapol Chantawong, wrote to the parents as a group, promising to take care of them as best as he could. The parents had written to him earlier, assuring him that they did not blame him for the situation.
“Thank you all for the support,” the coach wrote. “I deeply apologize to the parents.”
He also wrote to his own family members — an aunt and his grandmother — asking them not to worry too much about him. “Aunty, can you please tell granny to prepare vegetable juice and pork snacks?” he wrote. “I’ll eat them when I get out. Love you all.”
— Muktita Suhartono, at the Tham Luang Cave
On Friday, a Thai Navy SEAL commander said the oxygen level in the boys’ cavern was about 15 percent and falling. That is a concern because levels below 16 percent can cause oxygen depletion, a condition known as hypoxia.
Under normal conditions, the air people breathe consists of about 21 percent oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen and one percent argon and other gases, including carbon dioxide. When the mix changes, humans can feel a range of health effects, subtle and otherwise.
The United States Federal Aviation Administration reports that hypoxia may cause headaches, nausea, drowsiness, rapid breathing, slurred speech and “diminished thinking capacity,” among other problems. It can also result in incapacitation or, in extreme cases, death.
Hypoxia can be a concern in high-altitude regions, or when a plane loses air pressure .
The air in caves tends to be good, and cavers would typically worry about high concentrations of carbon monoxide, not low concentrations of oxygen, said Dinko Novosel, the president of the European Cave Rescue Association .
