Thai military diver dies trying to rescue boys stranded in cave
There is serious doubt about the safety of trying to bring the boys out through cramped passageways — even for expert divers the journey is an 11-hour round trip
Mae Sai, Thailand — A former Thai military diver helping to rescue a young football team trapped inside a flooded cave drowned on Friday as officials warned that the window of opportunity to free the youngsters was "limited". The diver’s death raises serious doubts about the safety of attempting to bring the 12 boys and their football coach out through cramped passageways deep inside the waterlogged Tham Luang cave. But Thailand’s Navy Seal commander indicated that rescuers may have little choice but to attempt the tricky extraction of the group, in comments on Friday, in the first official admission that they could not wait out the monsoon underground. "At first, we thought the children could stay for a long time … but now things have changed, we have a limited time," Apakorn Yookongkaew said. A sombre mood has clouded the elation from earlier in the week, when the boys were found dishevelled and hungry but alive on a ledge kilometres inside the cave. The diver, identified as Saman...
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