Only heard about this a couple days ago and the poor blighters been in there a week. Seems to be unfolding like the trapped minors in Chile back in 2010.. Loved the lad who asked the British diver where he was from "England" . Bet that confused the lad probably thought that was one hell of a swim to get there..

Just hope they get them all out safe and well as can be. What a logistics task... Not read how far the tunnels are flooded... Wheres Thunderbird 4 or Thunderbirds MOLE when its needed.. Seem to remember an episode that involved drilling into a mountain to rescue.

Yes, I've been following this, the comments all along were that they were probably alive. Full marks to the football coach, handling a load of kids in that situation must have been a task and a half, I bet he's going to sleep for a week.

It's an awful situation this, thank god they've been found. Now the problem of getting them out. Just read that it could take months , unless they learn to dive ! The water will not go down for this amount of time. Just a nightmare..

Yes, it's wonderful that they are all safe, but this is just the start of a long journey for them all and a logistical nightmare for those working to free them. What it must be like being cooped up in the dark like that, I cannot imagine. At least now contact has been made and supplies can be brought to them.

From what we have seen I find the bravery of all involved and especially the children ,astounding. All very calm. The football coach is only in his mid twenties . Let's hope an ingenious mind will come up with possibly an earlier exit and that everyone will stay safe. It must be pretty damp and clammy down there.

Presume they will have some emergency extract plans should water levels rise or perhaps there might be higher drier ground further into cave system. Just that horrible feeling it could still go badly wrong.

Nah, these are resourceful Thai kids, not pampered western kids that would have a panic attack every 10 seconds at the thought of getting their designer clothes wet. They'll learn to use a breather in minutes and follow the rope, most of the delay will be setting up the rest stations, planning and making sure the kids strength have been built up again. They may have to be re-oxygenating the cavern where the kids are which will take quite a few trips with bottles.

One rescuer has died of lack of oxygen, we need an experienced UK team down there.

This is getting worse , heavy rains forcast which could flood where they are. One british diver who reached them first I think was saying it took 5 hours to reach them so with them not having dived before and panic setting in it really is going to be hard. I was thinking is there any kind of capsule that maybe could take one at a time, something like they use to dive to deep areas in the oceans? Probably not I suspect. It's a horrible situation and that just hope they get to them soon.

Very sad that a diver has died, apparently taking supplies to the boys. Five hours is one heck of a long time.. it almost seems an impossible task. Not a couple of children, but 13 in total !... they need a lot of prayers .

Capsule won't fit through the smaller gaps, they are even worried that full face masks might be a risk so are considering just mouthpiece breathers but the concern then is that if a child drops the breather they might panic - on the smaller passages nobody else will be able to see if this happens nor will they be able to help for some time.

They need to train the kids hard before hand, have them go under water numerous times and take the breather out etc until it becomes instinct, the problem with this is getting enough bottles of air down that end to do the practising.

The 5 hour run was the initial run by the English rescuers, I think they reckon a normal run is about 3 hours now but will be more than that with the kids. There are large caverns on the way that don't fully flood but might not have large ledges, they could do with getting some inflatable boats to those sections which will speed up the operation once they start moving the kids because otherwise (like a water slide) they can't start one until a the previous one is clear and currently they haven't got comms between sections..

I see the coach is getting the blame for taking them in, I hope he isn't treated too harshly, presumably the caves were bone dry when they went in judging from various comments. They certainly can pin the death of the rescuer on him, every diver knows the safety limits of their air supply and knows not to push them to the limit, this was a very unfortunate mistake by the volunteer and could have happened anytime to him if he didn't have the right mindset.

Elon Musk has given them an idea now, which I didnt quite see how it could reliably work.--involving heavy duty tubes and inflating them to displace the water in the 'caves' so the boys could walk out?https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/07/elon-musk-has-an-idea-for-saving-boys-stranded-in-a-thailand-cave/

Way too high a risk, anything goes wrong and anybody in the tube is a definite gonna. Also the inflated tube will go the the top and will clamp sideways onto any weight inside and again getting it through the narrow parts would be difficult unless it is extremely light (and hence easily puncturable).

Nice idea for other circumstances maybe.

Moving anything that sort of size would be a huge struggle, they spent a few days just passing a fibre-optic cable through.

I thought that idea was in progress but only allowing for the boys to crawl through the narrowest stretches.

Rescue under way. Started about 3am and expected to conclude (if that's the right word) at 4pm .

May every one be blessed with a happy ending.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/44755093