Last Updated Jun 29, 2018 7:14 AM EDT
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.
Howard Johnson, from CBS News partner BBC News, reports that some of the team of 30 U.S. military personnel who joined rescue efforts earlier this week was looking for shafts into the cave down which to rappel on Friday. Their efforts are part of a three-pronged approach to the operation, which also includes pumping water out of the cave and exploring the caverns, Johnson says.
Also 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,” he said.
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