Timeline: Thai cave rescue
Twelve boys and their football coach have been trapped for two weeks inside a flooded Thai cave.
They were found alive following a gruelling search by divers, who must now determine how to free the youngsters.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. With fresh monsoon rains due, rescuers warn the window of opportunity to evacuate the boys is "limited".
Here is how the rescue attempt has unfolded so far:
Thai boys go missing on Saturday, June 23
The youngsters, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach enter the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand during heavy rains after football practice.
They are reported missing by a mother after her son does not come home that night. Local officials find bicycles locked to a fence and shoes and football boots close to the entrance.
Footprints and handprints found on Sunday, June 24
Park officials and police find handprints and footprints believed to belong to the boys and think they likely retreated into the winding tunnels as they became hemmed in by rising floodwaters. Relatives start to keep a vigil outside the cave.
Divers enter cave on Monday, June 25
Thai Navy SEAL divers enter the cave searching for the boys. Makeshift shrines are set up for parents to pray and make offerings, as heavy rains continue.
The boys are believed to have retreated further into the cave to an elevated air pocket called "Pattaya Beach".
Divers forced back on Tuesday, June 26
Divers reach a T-junction several kilometres inside the cave but are forced back by rushing floodwaters that clog a narrow crevice near Pattaya Beach.
US military, divers arrive on Wednesday, June 27
A team of more than 30 American military personnel from the US Pacific Command arrive, including pararescue and survival specialists. They are joined by three British diving experts who go into the cave's entrance but quickly retreat because of heavy flooding.
Rescue halted on Thursday, June 28
The underwater rescue is temporarily halted because of the fast-moving floods inside the cave as downpours refuse to let up.
Water pumps are shipped in to drain the rising, murky floodwaters. Drones are dispatched to help find new chimneys.
Prayut Chan-O-Cha visits site on Friday, June 29
Thailand's junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha visits the site and leads a meditation, jokes and cooks with relatives, asking them not to give up hope.
Divers go deeper in the cave on Saturday, June 30
A break in the bad weather allows divers to reach further inside the cave but they are still far away from where the boys are believed to be.
Operating base set up in cave on Sunday, July 1
Divers inch further into the cave, as an operating base is set up inside and hundreds of air tanks and other supplies are pulleyed in. Rescuers can now remain underground for longer.
The missing boys and coach found on Monday, July 2
A miracle, finally: the 12 boys and their coach are found alive late Monday evening about 400 metres beyond Pattaya Beach -- which had become threatened by encroaching flood waters.
Crowds at the teeming rescue site cheer the good news and a nation breathes a sigh of relief. But attention turns to the difficult task of getting the boys out safely.
Food and medical supplies provided on Tuesday, July 3
Much-needed food and medical supplies -- including high-calorie gels and paracetamol -- reach the boys as rescuers prepare for the possibility that they may remain in the cave for some time.
Boys trained, water pumped on Wednesday, July 4
Officials say the group are being taught how to use diving masks and breathing apparatus. Authorities are pumping out water round-the-clock, aware of the bad weather forecast in the days ahead.
Urgency increases on Thursday, July 5
In a sign of increased urgency, Thai rescuers say they may be prodded into a complex extraction if forecast rains hammer the mountainside. A team of bird's nest collectors scour the mountainside for openings.
Diver dies on Friday, July 6
Tragedy strikes: a diver helping to establish an airline to the boys dies after passing out while returning from the chamber.
Saman Kunan's death raises serious doubts over the safety of trying to bring them out through the cramped, waterlogged passageways.
Thailand's Navy SEAL commander says oxygen levels inside have dropped. He warns the window of opportunity to free the youngsters is "limited", in the first official admission that they cannot wait out the monsoon underground.
Boys' coach sends letter on Saturday, July 7
Rescue operation chief Narongsak Osottanakorn says it is "not suitable" to make the boys dive to safety yet.
A scrawled message emerges from the coach of the team, offering his "apologies" to their parents.
The head of the rescue mission says more than 100 chimneys are being drilled into the mountainside in a frantic bid to reach the boys.
Rescue operation to extract Thai boys begins, Sunday, July 8
Divers began an operation to rescue the 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a cave complex in northern Thailand at at 10:00am local time (0300 GMT), Narongsak Osottanakorn, head of the rescue mission, told reporters.
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