Royal Thai Navy SEALs take part in rescue operation for 12 Thai teenagers and their football coach in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai Province, June 30, 2018. (Xinhua/Thai Royal Navy)
CHIANG RAI, Thailand, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Divers managed to reach closer to where the 13 missing footballers are expected be taking refuge in northern Thailand's flooded cave on Sunday, igniting a spark of hope for the search as it enters the 8th day.
Divers from the Thai navy's elite SEAL unit were groping their way through the murky waters filling passages of the 10 km underground maze of the Tham Luang cave.
They are taking food, electricity equipments and telephone wires as they are trying to set up an control center in a chamber about 3 km away from where the boys are believed to be, according to Narongsak Osottanakorn, governor of Chiang Rai province.
The water pumped out from the cave is less muddy than it was three days ago, meaning that there is less flood coming from outside, said the governor.
Divers reached the same spot earlier in the week but were forced back by rushing floodwaters.
The weather turns sunny in the last two days, allowing the rescue team to pick up the pace to pump the floodwater from the cave.
Royal Thai Navy SEALs take part in rescue operation for 12 Thai teenagers and their football coach in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai Province, June 30, 2018. (Xinhua/Thai Royal Navy)
The divers brought 200 bottles of oxygen to the cave and left them every 25 meters along the tunnel walls so swimmers navigating the muddy pools with almost no visibility could stay under for longer.
Doctors with diving skills stand ready to enter the cave once the boys were found.
A second, private Chinese group calling itself Green Boat Emergency arrived Saturday. "Our skills are search-and-rescue on mountains and in caves. We hope we can help," said Wang Lin, the head of the group.
Australian specialists also headed for Thailand on Saturday to join the search.
The 12 Thai boys, aged between 11 and 16, with their 25-year-old coach went missing in the cave in Chiang Rai province since June 23. The Thai government has dispatched more than 1,000 rescuers to launch the search, which was hampered by heavy downpours.