Thailand cave rescue: New footage of boys trapped in Tham Luang released by Navy SEALS

Fiona Simpson4 July 2018

New video footage has been released of 12 boys and their football coach who have been trapped in a cave in Thailand for 11 days after rescuers gave them food for the first time.

The clip, released by Thai Navy SEALS , shows the football team and the 25-year-old coach speaking Thai, clasping their hands together and bowing their heads towards the camera.

Some of the boys, aged between 11 and 16, are wearing foil blankets but appear to be in good spirits and even share a joke despite being told they must swim from the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave or face being trapped for another four months.

Rescuers reached the group on Monday after they went missing after exploring the huge cavern’s six mile tunnels after a football match on June 23.

On Tuesday, the group were give solid food for the first time since their discovery.

Rear Admiral Arpakorn Yookongkaew said his team members "have given the boys food, starting from easily digested and high-powered food with enough minerals".

Some of the boys pictured in the cave 

On Tuesday, officials in Thailand warned that heavy rains forecast could worsen flooding in a cave possibly forcing authorities to have them swim out through a narrow, underwater passage in the cavern.

Graphic shows where the young boys and their coach were found
MailOnline

“While efforts to pump out floodwaters are continuing, it's clear that some areas of the sprawling cavern cannot be drained”, said Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda, a member of Thailand's ruling military junta.

A doctor and a nurse are among those with the group in the cave where they took shelter
EPA

“In order to get them out ahead of the bad weather forecast for later in the week, they might need to use diving gear while being guided by professional divers”, he said.

A Chilean miner trapped rescued after being trapped underground for 69 days also offered advice to the boys.

Thai workers transport soil to adjust the ground in front of the cave
EPA

Omar Reygadas. Who was rescued along with 32 other miners in 2010, said: "It's terrible for them - they're little - but I believe that boys with a lot of strength are going to manage to be whole when they get out.”

It's difficult to send them advice, he added, but "they should think only about leaving and reuniting with their families."

Reygadas and the other miners were trapped nearly 2,300 feet (700 meters) below Chile's Atacama desert before a specially built capsule could be lowered down a drilled shaft and raise them to the surface one by one.

Faith and prayer, as well as humor were very important to the miners at times when they doubted they would be rescued, Reygadas said.

Thailand Cave Rescue - In pictures

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"They shouldn't be ashamed to be scared," he said of the boys. "Because we were scared, too. Our tears also ran. Even as adult men, we cried."

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