A Thai soccer team has been found alive after being trapped in a cave for 9 days - here's how long humans can survive in those conditions

Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center via AP

Thai rescue teams walk inside cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach went missing.

• On Saturday, June 23, 12 boys and their soccer coach disappeared while hiking in Northern Thailand, eventually becoming trapped in a cave.
• They were found on Monday, July 2.
• People can survive a limited time without food or water, and the temperature around them can have a significant effect on them.
• While the team has been found, they are not yet rescued - the search-and-rescue experts will want to give them medical treatment and try to drain the flooded cave chambers before getting them out.

Nine days after they went missing, rescue teams have found the 12 boys and soccer coach that disappeared while exploring the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system in Chiang Rai, a province in the north of Thailand.

As of Monday evening, all 13 were alive.

"Thai Navy seals have found all 13 with signs of life," Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters.

But they have not yet been extracted and will still need to survive while rescuers work to get medical teams into the cave and while they work to drain rising waters and open up passageways.

The fact that the group has survived so far shows the ability that enables people to endure extreme conditions.

The 25-year-old coach and the team, aged 11 to 16, were reportedly known to explore the region. Their bicycles were discovered outside the caves on Saturday, June 23, which led search-and-rescue experts to believe they'd been trapped in the caves due to flooding triggered by heavy rainfall. Divers from Thai Navy SEAL units and rescue experts from the US, UK, China, and Australia coordinated to search the cave system and found the trapped team on Monday.

Now, they need to try to stabilize the team before extracting them.

Linh Pham/Getty Images

British cave-divers John Volanthen walks out from Tham Luang Nang Non cave in full kit without any response to reporter's questions on June 28, 2018 in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

How long people can survive without food, water, and in extreme conditions

It's unclear how much food or water the team could have had with them in the caves - their backpacks were found outside with their bicycles and soccer gear, so it's unlikely they had much of anything. It's also unclear whether any of the team members suffered injuries that would complicate their chances of survival.

Dehydration is a quick killer - people generally can't go longer than a few days without water. Depending on the conditions, someone might be able to survive for up to a week if it's not too hot and they're in the shade. But really, most people would have a hard time surviving longer than 100 hours or so.

Presumably, the team has been drinking the rainwater that's flooding the caves. This carries risks as well. If they were to pick up an infection from the water that caused diarrhea, that could kill them faster - but it was likely the only option.

Food is another story, and a bit trickier to calculate, though people can go longer without it. When they were still searching for the boys, the Chiang Rai governor told reporters they thought most people could survive 3o days without food. Experts believe that healthy adults can survive four to six weeks before starving to death. People with more body fat, in temperate conditions, and with adequate hydration could potentially survive longer. But young boys, while healthy, might not have the same energy reserves.

Finally, the temperature could be a major concern. It's likely that it's quite cool inside the cave system, and that the team could have had a hard time staying dry. They've likely been unable to move much to stay warm, which could make the cold even more dangerous.

(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Flood water fills the entrance to a cave hindering the search effort for 12 boys and their soccer coach who went missing in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand.

Next steps

Even though the hikers has been located, the rescue teams were not ready to extract them yet as of early Tuesday morning, local time (Monday evening, July 2 in the US). They're trying to drain water from various chambers in the cave system so they're able to extract the boys without putting them in dive gear to get them out, rescue consultant Pat Moret told CNN.

In their weakened state, diving could be terrifying and dangerous.

Additionally, experts will want to stabilize the boys before moving them.

"They'll need fluids replacing (and) possibly feeding. They're going to need reheating. They've possibly been lying still for days now. And sensory faculties won't be what they should be," Moret told CNN. "So I would think that they're not really fit to move for maybe 12 hours or so really."

Still, now that they've been found, the rescuers will hopefully be able to provide any necessary treatment.

In a Facebook video posted by the Thai Navy, you can see that the boys appear to be okay, sitting in a group above the water in a cave chamber.

"We are coming, it's OK, many people are coming," one member of the search team tells the boys.