Rescuers at Thai cave electrocuted trying to save missing soccer team

MAE SAI, Thailand — At least three rescuers searching for 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach missing in a flooded cave in northern Thailand have been injured by electrical lines fed into the caverns to power lights and pumps.

Journalists saw workers run out of the cave on Friday shouting that some rescuers had been injured and to shut off the electricity immediately.

Ambulances quickly arrived and witnesses saw three men being carried on stretchers. Police said their injuries were minor and the men were in stable condition.

A jerry-rigged electrical system has been set up inside the cave for lights and water pumps to battle the flooding, which has prevented rescuers from moving farther into the extensive cave complex, where the boys and their coach have been trapped for six days.

Later on Friday, Thailand’s prime minister visited the flooded cave complex and urged the relatives of the missing team not to give up hope. 

“There has to be faith. Faith makes everything a success,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the country’s military ruler, told families waiting outside the cave. “Faith in the actions of officials. Faith in our children who are strong and vigorous. Everything will go back to normal.” 

Earlier this week, a team of U.S. military personnel as well as British divers joined the rescue efforts.

“Essentially what they’re looking at is assessing with the Thai authorities the potential courses of action and complementing the efforts underway,” U.S. embassy spokeswoman Jillian Bonnardeaux said of the American team from U.S. Pacific Command.

“Operators are trained in personnel recovery tactics and techniques and procedures,” she told the AFP news agency.