June 25 (UPI) — A teenage soccer team and their coach are believed to be trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand as rescue efforts were underway on Monday.
The Thai Navy’s Underwater Demolition Assault Unit was searching the tunnels of the Tham Luang cave in an attempt to locate the 12 boys between the ages of 13 and 16 and their 25-year-old coach, the Bangkok Post reported.
The team has been missing since Saturday. Witnesses said they saw the team enter the cave, which is a popular tourist attraction and contains winding tunnels that are several miles long and connect to other caves.
“We have been working almost 24 hours but there are many limitations, the caves are pitch dark and very low level of oxygen in some areas, and scattering rains just made our task more difficult,” Kamolchai Kotcha, an official with Thailand’s national parks authority, told CNN.
