Four others rescued in Tham Luang before the Mu Pa 13
PHOTO: British cavers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthe
Dramatic new stories out of a “Hidden Earth” cave-community event where it’s been revealed that the, now famous, Mu Pa 13 weren’t the only people trapped inside the caves in Chiang Rai.
Two of the British divers who were part of the Tham Luang rescue effort, extracting the Mu Pa football team from a cave in Chiang Rai, claim that, before the much-publicised rescue, they’d earlier saved four other adults also stranded in the caves under the Tham Luang mountains.
The 13 team members of the Mu Pa football team were trapped by rising flood waters after they headed to the caves on June 23 as an after-practice excursion. It was only meant to last an hour.
At the time, officials leading the rescue effort called on the expertise of the international caving community, from England and Australia, who formed a diving dream team led by local Thai Navy SEALs.
British divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen found the players marooned on a muddy bank nine days after the team entered the cave. The 13 had survived on rainwater dripping from rocks and the guidance of their older coach. They were extracted seven days later, the rescuers forced into taking swift action because of approaching monsoonal rains that would make the situation in the caves worse.
But days earlier, it’s emerged, the British team of Rick and John unexpectedly found four other Thais adults who, unknown to everyone else, had become trapped by floodwaters while trying to find the 13 young football players.
Read the rest of the story HERE.
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