Rescue efforts have begun for 12 boys and their football coach who have been trapped in a cave in northern Thailand for more than two weeks, the head of the mission said today.
The "Wild Boars" team has been confined in a cramped chamber several kilometres (miles) inside the Tham Luang cave complex since June 23, when they went in after football practice and were hemmed in by monsoon floods.
Their plight has transfixed Thailand and the rest of the world, as authorities have struggled to devise a plan to extract the boys and their coach through twisting, narrow and jagged passageways that in some places are completely flooded.
"Today is the D-day. The boys are ready to face any challenges," rescue chief Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters near the cave site as the threat loomed of monsoon rains causing more flooding in the cave and blocking off a rescue bid.
Narongsak said the first boy was expected to be brought out of the cave by around 9:00 pm (1400 GMT), meaning the trip would take around 11 hours. Authorities had earlier Sunday told the more than 1,000 journalists who had converged near the cave site's entrance to clear the area in preparation for the rescue operation.
"Everyone who is not involved with the operations has to get out of the area immediately," police announced via loudspeaker.
The boys, aged from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach were found by British cave diving specialists nine days after they ventured in, dishevelled and hungry, on a ledge several kilometres inside the cave.
But with some of them unable to swim and having no scuba experience,