MAE SAI, Thailand—Rescue divers have retrieved eight boys from a youth soccer team stranded in the flooded Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand after guiding four more of them through winding passages and caverns on Monday.
A military official said the four were brought out in the late afternoon and early evening on Monday. Another four were rescued on Sunday, meaning the remaining four players will await their turn to be rescued on Tuesday, along with their 25-year-old coach.
Rescue teams have been racing against the weather to free the boys as rains threaten to flood the cave further. The 12 players from the Wild Boars soccer team, ages 11 to 16, had been trapped inside the network of caverns and passageways with their coach for more than two weeks before the dangerous rescue effort began Sunday after days of careful preparation.
Rescue coordinator Narongsak Osottanakorn said Monday afternoon that the boys are in a hospital in the nearby city of Chiang Rai and are in good condition. He said they had been asking for a favorite local dish, spicy pork stir-fried with basil.
Officials haven’t yet allowed the boys’ parents and other relatives to visit them, ostensibly because of a fear of infection. Narongsak said authorities would now consider allowing visits, although the parents may have to be walled off by a glass or transparent screen.
Narongsak said concerns about the weather worsening the flooding hadn’t materialized, though heavy rains lashed the region on Sunday before easing off Monday.
Read: Thailand cave rescue: Volunteer diver dies during operation
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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