Four more boys rescued from Thailand cave

Four more boys were rescued from the flooded cave in Thailand they have been trapped in for over two week, leaving another four boys and their coach left to be saved.

Rescue operations are expected to resume on Tuesday.

The group was trapped in the cave on 23 June after heavy rains caused flooding. They were found by divers last week, with rescue efforts starting on Sunday, when the first four boys were rescued.

The mission was paused overnight for air tanks to be replaced.

Authorities have been rushing to extract the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their coach from the cave as monsoon rains bore down on the mountainous region in the far northern province.

Extracting the boys, and their coach, has proved to be a dangerous and urgent operation, given fears that their oxygen could soon run out.

Before the confirmation that four more boys had been rescued on Monday, air ambulances were seen departing from the cave system and ambulances arriving at the hospital in the nearby town of Chiang Rai.

Rescuers decided to go ahead with the operation to free the group because of fears that waters would rise again. Efforts to pump out water have been ongoing since the rescue operation started.

The rescue is complicated by sections in the cave involving diving - sometimes in a very confined space - and climbing.

Divers from the British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) confirmed that seven divers from the UK with expertise in cave diving were assisting in the rescue.