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Agence France-Presse

Saturday, June 23
The youngsters, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach went into the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand after football practice. They were reported missing by a mother after her young son did not come home that night.
Local officials start to look for the boys after they are believed to have become trapped by heavy rains which cut them off from the main entrance.
They find bicycles locked to a fence and shoes and football boots belonging to the kids close to the entrance.
 
Sunday, June 24
Park officials and police kick into gear to find the boys and heavy rains continue to fall in the area near the Laos and Myanmar borders.
They find handprints and footprints believed to belong to the boys and think they likely retreated into the winding tunnels as they became hemmed in by rising floodwaters.
Relatives keep a vigil outside the cave where they will stay for nine days straight desperately awaiting news.

Monday, June 25
Thai Navy SEAL divers are in the cave searching for the boys, armed with oxygen tanks and carrying food.
Makeshift shrines are set up for parents to pray and make offerings.
Heavy rains continue, sparking fears that floodwaters within the cave could rise.
The boys are believed to have retreated further into the cave to an elevated air pocket called “Pattaya Beach”.


Tuesday, June 26
Divers reach a T-junction several kilometres inside the cave but are forced back by rushing floodwaters that clog a narrow crevice near Pattaya Beach.
Rescue operations run around the clock but it is a race against time as rains continue to fall.
Thailand’s junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha calls for the nation to support the rescue.

Wednesday, June 27
A team of more than 30 American military personnel from the US Pacific Command, including pararescue and survival specialists, arrive at the site late Wednesday.
They are joined by three British diving experts who go into the cave’s entrance but quickly retreat because of heavy flooding.
Continuing rains are causing flood levels to rise, and officials say conditions are “difficult”.
Thursday, June 28
The underwater rescue is temporarily halted because of the fast-moving floods inside the cave as downpours refuse to let up.
Water pumps are shipped in to drain the rising floodwaters that are so murky it is likened to swimming through cold coffee.
American experts get to work around the base, while the three British divers and others scour the mountain for alternative entrances into the cave.
Drones are dispatched to help find new chimneys.

Friday, June 29
A glimmer of hope as rescue teams find a possible opening, but there is no guarantee it will connect to the main cave network.
Prayuth Chan-ocha visits the site and leads a meditation, jokes and cooks with relatives, asking them not to give up hope.
 
Saturday, June 30
A break in the bad weather allows divers to reach further inside the cave but they are still several kilometres away from where the boys are believed to be.
Teams continue to search for alternative openings above ground and rescuers conduct practice drills to safely evacuate the boys if and when they are found.

Sunday, July 1
Divers inch further into the cave taking advantage of the brief break in bad weather.
Rescuers set up an operating base inside the cave and hundreds of oxygen tanks and other supplies are pulleyed in. Divers can now stay remain underground for longer.
As the sun breaks out, Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osottanakorne says conditions for the operation are improving.


Monday, July 2
A miracle, finally: the 12 boys and their coach are found alive and safe about 400 metres further along from Pattaya Beach – which had become threatened by encroaching floodwaters.
Crowds at the teeming rescue site cheer the good news and a nation breathes a sigh of relief.
But attention now turns to the difficult task of now getting the boys out safely.
The main priority is to get them food and first aid after nine days with little to eat in difficult conditions.
It could take days – or weeks – to get them out. Rescuers explore several options, including training them to use scuba equipment.


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Thailand

How the Thailand cave rescue unfolded

Bad weather hampered the rescue effort for the youngsters, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach through the snaking Tham Luang cave – one of Thailand’s longest, and toughest to explore.

In this image made from video taken Sunday, June 24, 2018, bicycles left from a group of boys who went missing stand parked outside a deep cave in Chang Rai, northern Thailand. Officials say multiple attempts to locate the 12 boys and their soccer coach missing in a flooded cave in northern Thailand for nearly two days have failed, but that they will keep trying. (TPBS via AP)

Thai soldiers searching for the missing children and their coach march out of the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand on Friday, June 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A diver (R) heads toward a partially flooded cave complex in northern Thailand on July 1, 2018, where 12 boys and their soccer coach are believed to have been trapped for over a week. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

In this photo released by the Thailand Department of National Parks and Wildlife, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, rescue personnel search for alternate entrances to a cave where 12 boys of a soccer team and their coach went missing in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, northern Thailand. Rain is continuing to fall and water levels keep rising inside a cave in northern Thailand, frustrating the search for the boys and their coach who have been missing since Saturday. (Thailand Department of National Parks and Wildlife via AP)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha speaks as he visits family members near the Tham Luang cave complex during an ongoing search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Relatives of 12 young soccer team members and their coach pray for their rescue after going missing in a large cave, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. Rain is continuing to fall and water levels keep rising inside a cave in northern Thailand, frustrating the search for the boys and their soccer coach who have been missing since Saturday. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Foreign diver prepare for the rescue operation. Photo: EPA

Thai cave boys to get four months of food and diving lessons as focus shifts to tricky rescue

Options being considered include waiting until water levels subside, or teaching the group to use diving gear to navigate the flooded cave

(180702) -- CHIANG RAI, July 2, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Chinese rescue team members are seen after diving near a cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach went missing in Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, July 2, 2018. The team of 12 young footballers and their coach were missing in the cave since June 23. (Xinhua/Han Chen) (jmmn)

In this handout photo released by Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center, Thai rescue teams walk inside cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach went missing, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Monday, July 2, 2018. Rescue divers are advancing in the main passageway inside the flooded cave in northern Thailand where the boys and their coach have been missing more than a week. (Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center via AP)

CORRECTION - A family member shows a picture of four of the twelve missing boys near the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai on July 2, 2018. Twelve boys and their football coach trapped in a flooded Thai cave for nine days were "found safe" on late July 2, in a miracle rescue after days of painstaking searching by divers. / AFP PHOTO / LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / CORRECTION: “The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [A family member shows a picture of four of the twelve missing boys near the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai on July 2, 2018.] instead of [A happy family member shows the latest pictures of the missing boys taken by rescue divers inside Tham Luang cave when all members of children's football team and their coach were found alive in the cave at Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai provin

An undated handout photo released by Royal Thai Army shows the missing 13 members of a youth soccer team and their coach, moments they were found inside the flooded Tham Luang cave complex in Chiang Rai province late Monday. Photo: EPA

12 missing boys and soccer coach found alive after nine days trapped in Thai cave

Video by divers captures the moment the Wild Boar soccer team was found alive after days of painstaking searches

One of the last known photos of the group of boys who were feared trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand's Chiang Rai province. Photo: Facebook

Rescue workers carry a drain hose into the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex in northern Thailand on July 2, 2018, where 12 boys and their soccer coach are believed to be trapped. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

A family member shows the latest pictures of the missing boys taken by rescue divers inside Tham Luang cave when all members of the youth football team and their coach were found alive. Photo: AFP

Murky floodwaters, narrow passages and limited tech: here’s why rescuing 12 Thai boys trapped in a cave is so tricky

Rescue personnel walk out of the entrance to a cave complex where it's believed that 12 soccer team members and their coach went missing in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province. Photo: AP

epa06846252 A US Special Operations Command Pacific Search and Rescue Team's member (L) talks to Thai Navy personnel (R) after they survey inside the cave area during the rescue operation for the missing football players and their coach at the Tham Luang cave in Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Noon Forest Park in Chiang Rai province, Thailand, 28 June 2018. At least 12 members of a youth soccer team are believed to be missing after being trapped in a flooded cave that they were visiting on 23 June. EPA-EFE/PONGMANAT TASIRI

Rescue personnel drag a water pump up to the flooded cave that a soccer team and their coach are believed to be missing in, Thursday, June 28, 2018, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand. A U.S. military team and British cave experts have joined the rescue effort in northern Thailand for 12 boys and their soccer coach stranded for a fifth day inside a cave being flooded by near-constant rains. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Two British cave-divers (2nd and 3rd-L) with Thai army soldiers and local rescue personnel are seen searching for new openings in the mountain of Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Chiang Rai province on June 28, 2018 during rescue operation for a missing children's football team and their coach in Tham Luang cave. A team of US military personnel and British divers joined rescue efforts at a flooded cave in northern Thailand where 12 children and their football coach have been trapped for five days as heavy overnight rains hampered the search. / AFP PHOTO / THAI NEWS PIX / Krit PHROMSAKLA NA SAKOLNAKORN

epa06846624 A handout picture made available by the Royal Thai Navy on 28 June 2018, shows a Thai Navy official check the height of the water inside the cave as they prepare to drain water out of the cave, during the rescue operation for missing football players and their coach in area of the Tham Luang cave in Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Noon Forest Park in Chiang Rai province, Thailand. At least 12 members of a youth soccer team are believed to be missing after being trapped in a flooded cave that they were visiting on 23 June. EPA-EFE/ROYAL THAI NAVY / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Rescuers scour mountain for cave entrances as US forces, British divers join search for missing Thai boys

Search efforts have been hampered by heavy rain and flooding inside the cave. Photo: EPA

epa06843942 Thai workers and associated officials start pumping water out of the cave during the rescue operation for missing football players and their coach at the Tham Luang cave in Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Noon Forest Park in Chiang Rai province, Thailand, 27 June 2018. At least 12 members of a youth soccer team are believed to be missing after being trapped in a flooded cave that they were visiting on 23 June. EPA-EFE/PONGMANAT TASIRI

One of the last known photos of a group of boys who are feared trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand's Chiang Rai province.

Relatives pray as they keep vigil near the Tham Luang cave in Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Chiang Rai on June 27, 2018 while rescue personnel conduct operation for a missing children's football team and their coach. The desperate search for 12 children and their football coach trapped since June 23 in a flooded cave in northern Thailand pressed on as distraught relatives prayed and awaited news about the missing youngsters. / AFP PHOTO / LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA

Thai PM visits cave where youth soccer team feared trapped

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha at the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai. Photo: AP

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, center, talks to family members of 12 boys and their soccer coach missing in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, Friday, June 29, 2018. Prayuth on Friday visited the flooded cave complex where rescuers have been searching for 12 boys and their soccer coach missing for six days and urged their relatives to not give up hope. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, left, talks to family members of 12 boys and their soccer coach missing in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, Friday, June 29, 2018. Thailand's prime minister on Friday visited the flooded cave complex where rescuers have been searching for 12 boys and their soccer coach missing for six days and urged their relatives to not give up hope. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

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Bad weather hampered the rescue effort for the youngsters, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach through the snaking Tham Luang cave – one of Thailand’s longest, and toughest to explore.


After nine days trapped in a flooded Thai cave 12 boys and their football coach have been found alive in a miraculous rescue. Here’s how the gruelling nine-day search in the cave filled with fast-flowing muddy floodwaters unfolded.


Explainers

How the Thailand cave rescue unfolded

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Saturday, June 23

Sunday, June 24

Saturday, June 23