The youth soccer team trapped deep in a cave in Thailand have said that they are healthy in a new video.
New video released by the Thai Navy SEALs on Wednesday showed the group of 12 boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old soccer coach wrapped in foil blankets for warmth perched atop the single mound of dry land in an otherwise flooded cavern of the Tham Luang Nang Non cave. As a flashlight shines on them, each boy is seen folding his hands before introducing himself and saying “I am healthy.” One boy even said “thank you” to his rescuers and those waiting for their safe return.
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The team became trapped in the cavern more than a week ago after heavy rainfall flooded the cave system and trapped them. On Monday, after nine days of being trapped and without communication with them, rescue divers finally managed to reach the Pattaya Beach, an elevated rock mound within the cave system that is oftentimes used by cavers when the caverns flood.
Despite having been located and having been evaluated by doctors, some of whom have chosen to stay within the cavern with the team, their ordeal is still far from over, and returning them back to the surface could take weeks or even months.
“It could, I’m afraid, still turn into a tragedy. There is a glimmer of hope but there is still an awful lot stacked up against the team,” Chris Jewell, a cave diving officer from the British Cave Rescue Council, told PEOPLE.
One of the things stacked against the rescue is more heavy rainfall expected to hit the area in the coming days, which could potentially keep the cave system flooded for months to come. Although rescuers have considered teaching the boys how to swim and dive, leading them out of the cave through the narrow tunnels could prove to be dangerous, as the dive to the boys was said to be hard for even experienced cave divers.
Another option is to find another way out for the team or even drill a passageway down to them. The team told rescue divers that they have heard dogs barking, a rooster crowing, and children playing, meaning that there could be a chimney or a hole granting access to the cavern.
The search team, which includes hundreds of NAVY Seal divers and rescue divers from across the world, are currently scouring the mountainside for potential access points. Meanwhile, divers are bringing the soccer team food rations and are setting up a telephone line so that they can communicate with their families above ground.
