Thai cave rescue, live updates: Divers extract another boy, 4 still inside

Bangkok: The rescue operation to extract the remaining four schoolboys and their soccer team coach from a cave in Thailand has begun on Tuesday. Divers and rescue workers are conducting the rescue operation in the cave located in the country's remote north. The boys were exploring the caves on June 23 with their coach when they were trapped inside by heavy seasonal rains, CNN reported. 

After they were found on July 2, officials cautioned it could take some time to get them out, but authorities decided to act with heavy rains forecast to hit the region. The cave complex is regularly flooded during the monsoon season which lasts until September or October.

Here are the live updates:

* Ninth person rescued from Tham Luang cave by divers.

* The first eight boys rescued from a Thai cave are all ‘in good health, no fever. Everyone is in a good mental state," Jesada Chokedamrongsuk, permanent secretary of the public health ministry told AFP.

* Osotthanakorn the boys rescued are well and that those rescued Monday were in better condition than those freed the previous day.

* The eight boys who have left the cave are being treated in an isolation ward in Chiang Rai hospital. Doctors are monitoring them for illnesses they may have picked up in the cave.

* Former Chiang Rai governor and rescue mission commander Narongsak Osotthanakorn said on Monday night that it would take 20 hours to prepare for the third operation, but he cautioned timings could change depending on weather and water levels.

* Rescuers had moved relatively quickly in order to take advantage of good weather, but heavy downpours early Tuesday could complicate their efforts.

* Eight of the boys have been taken out so far of the Tham Luang cave complex system in Chiang Rai region in the last two days of rescue operations, but the five others remain trapped on a ledge 4 km deep inside, reports CNN.

(With inputs from IANS)