The 12 boys and their soccer coach rescued from a flooded cave in northern Thailand appeared in public for the first time on Wednesday. The boys are ages 11 to 16. They waved, smiled and offered the traditional Thai greeting “wai” on a national television broadcast. They wore shirts with an image of a wild boar. That is what the soccer team is called. They kicked footballs around the television set which had goalposts and nets like a soccer field. A large sign had the words “Bringing the Wild Boars Home.”

One of the boys, Adul Sam-on, described the moment when two British cave divers found the group on July 2. “It was magical,” he said. “I had to think a lot before I could answer their questions.”

The discovery launched the rescue effort that brought them all to safety over three days. Members of the Thai navy SEALs and an international team of cave-diving experts organized the rescue effort.

Coach Ekkapol Chantawong has been credited with keeping the boys alive. He said the order in which the boys were rescued did not depend on the state of their health.

He said, “The ones whose homes are the furthest went first, so they could tell everyone that the boys were fine.”

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”