“TOO UNSTABLE”
Malaysian diver Lee Kian Lie told AFP on Monday that one team was still searching inside the cave and clearing a path after rain inundated the tunnels.
A second team “will search possible entry from the other side into the cave chamber” where rescuers suspect the last two men are stuck, he said in a message.
Rain made some of the passages “too unstable”, so the search priority “has shifted to some promising leads above the cave” that might link to a chamber where the two men took shelter, Finnish diver Mikko Paasi said on social media.
“We as a dive team will assist the local climbers and stand by in case they find water and our expertise is needed again,” added Paasi, who took part in the dramatic 2018 rescue of a youth football team from a flooded cave in Thailand.
Thai rescuer Kengkard Bonggawong said teams were also using satellite radar to look for tunnels that could lead them to the missing men.
“We are racing to pump water out and making an air line into the cave for breathing,” Kengkard said in a video posted to social media.
Japanese diver Yoshitaka Isaji said teams had found another potential way into the cave through “a crack” in the mountain.
“The space may continue after a descent of approximately 100m using a rope,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “We will continue to search the crack.”
Another Thai rescuer, Manat Artmongkron, posted that a team heard responding “knocking sounds” in a chamber after rappelling to a depth of 70m, which he called “good news”.
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