Thai soccer team that was found in a cave after 10 days may be stuck there for months
- The Thai soccer team that has been stuck in a cave in northern Thailand for more than a week may need to remain there for months.
- The boys will have to learn how to dive or may have to wait months until the flooding subsides before they can get out safely.
- Rescuers found the 12 boys and their soccer coach alive and relatively healthy on Monday evening after 9 days of searches.
The Thai soccer team that has been stuck in a cave in northern Thailand may need to remain there for months.
Rescuers found the 12 boys and their soccer coach alive and relatively healthy on an elevated rock about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the mouth of the cave on Monday evening after 9 days of searches.
However, the boys will have to learn how to dive or wait months until the flooding subsides before they can get out safely, the BBC said, citing the military.
Food may need to be sent in for at least the next four months, the military added. Thailand's rainy season usually persists through October.
Rescuers on Tuesday raced to pump water from the cave as forecasted heavy rain threatened to complicated rescue efforts.
In the meantime, the 13 have been given energy gels to sustain them while a plan is worked out to bring them out safely. The Australian Federal Police, as well as specialists from the US and China, were assisting in the rescue efforts.
"It would be incredibly difficult at the moment to have the boys attempt to return with the dive team," said Thomas Hester, Detective Superintendent for the Australian Federal Police.
"Strategies have been looking at whether the boys are supported for a longer term option where they are, and Thai authorities have been looking at engineering options - whether or not they can drill down from the surface into the chamber where they are."
"Helping the kids will take time," Thailand's Navy chief Admiral Naris Pratoomsuwan, told reporters.
"From the operations center in the third chamber to where they were found, it takes about three hours to get there and three hours to come back."
Provincial governor Narongsak said the group's health was assessed overnight and the boys had sustained only light injuries. Rescue workers would now focus on getting them out, and then hand them over to medical teams waiting outside the cave.
Sura Jeetwatee, a doctor who is part of the operations, said the boys were able to walk and had survived by staying where they were and drinking water that dripped from stalactite formations.
"They were smart to drink water in the cave," Sura told Reuters.
Assistant government spokesman Colonel Athisit Chainuwat said the SEAL team was still with the boys and rescuers were trying to install lights, a power supply and get communications equipment to them.