The missing Thai footballers had gone into the cave as part of an initiation-type event, one of the divers who helped find them has said. 
 
 The boys, aged between 11 and 16, are believed to have been inside the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex to write their names on the walls before coming back out. 
 
 But a flash flood trapped them inside the complex along with their 25-year-old coach. 
 
 1:15 Video: US Air Force Captain: 'I had 'chills' at Thai rescue 
 
 The boys left their backpacks and shoes "before wading in and trying to go to the end of the tunnel, sort of like an initiation for local young boys to… write your name on the wall and make it back" said Ben Reymenants. 
 
 "Now a flash flood because of sudden heavy rain locked them in," he added. 
 
 Mr Reymenants said that the boys were stable and mentally fit, but weak due to a lack of food. 
 
 Image: Rescue workers are trying to pump water out of the cave 
 
 They had been surviving by drinking water off the walls of the cave. The children and coach had no access to food before rescuers reached them. 
 
 The group had one flashlight which had ran out. 
 
 Two navy SEAL doctors have been with them and helping to get their strength back up. 
 
 Journeying into the cave "was very taxing, especially with the emotional load of the lives of 12 young boys," Mr Reymenants said. 
 
 Image: Ben Reymenants was part of the rescue group that went into the cave 
 
 The dive was "one of the more extreme cave dives I've done", he said, crediting the complexity, the current, the poor visibility and distance for the difficulty of the expedition. 
 
 The leading option to rescue the boys, who do not know how to swim, is to teach them to scuba dive and lead them out of the caves. 
 
 0:53 Video: 'They're all alive!' 
 
 Asked if it would be viable to set the children and coach up with breathing equipment and to strap them to experienced divers, Mr Reymenants pointed out that aside from the dangers if one of the boys panicked, some segments of the cave are only wide enough for one person to fit through. 
 
 Mr Reymenants and his team were taking turns with a another team including British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton - who found the boys - to lay down guide lines to help the divers find their way back out and to ease future trips into the cave. 
 
 The teams used a 30-year-old map to navigate their way through the complex cave systems. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Finding the Thai cave boys and getting them out 
 
 Rescuers will take no risks in freeing the 12 boys and their football coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, an official said. 
 
 They have received their first food and medical treatment in 10 days. 
 
 Seven divers, including a doctor and a nurse, joined the group inside the caves in the north of the country after they were discovered alive on Monday. 
 
 Rescuers are now considering how best to bring the group to safety. 
 
 "We will not rush to take the lads out of the cave," the governor of Chiang Rai, Narongsak Osoththanakorn, told reporters, adding: "Whoever has zero risk first can leave the cave first." 
 
 More heavy rain could see water levels rise and threaten the air pocket where the group has taken refuge. 
 
 The boys were found nine days after they entered the caves in Chiang Rai province following a football training session and became trapped by rising waters from heavy rainfall. 
 
 On Tuesday, Thai officials told reporters that rescuers were providing health checks and treatment, and keeping the boys entertained, adding that none of those trapped were in a serious condition. 
 
 "They have been fed with easy-to-digest, high-energy food with vitamins and minerals, under the supervision of a doctor," Rear Admiral Apagorn Youkonggaew, head of the Thai navy's special forces, told reporters. 
 
 Why can't they swim out? 
 
 It is believed that most of the group cannot swim, complicating what would already be a difficult rescue. 
 
 Earlier, the Thai military said the boys would need to learn to dive - or wait up to four months for flooding to recede before they could get out of the caves, meaning food would need to be supplied for that time. 
 
 Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda later stressed the urgency of the evacuation, adding that rain was forecast "in the next few days", the Bangkok Post reported. 
 
 Attempts are being made to reduce the risk of further flooding of the caves by pumping water from the underground system, Mr Anupong said. 
 
 A phone line is also being installed so the boys can talk to their families. 
 
 The governor said that requests had been made to build "infrastructure" in the cave leading to the pocket where the teenagers and their coach are located. 
 
 The Thai authorities have appealed for donations of full-face scuba diving masks small enough to fit the boys in order to reduce the risk of their breathing apparatus coming loose as they travel through flooded passageways. 
 
 How were they found? 
 
 Two British rescuer divers who had flown over to join the search operation found the boys on Monday night. 
 
 The video of that first contact was posted on Facebook by Thai navy special forces. 
 
 The boys are seen by torchlight sitting on a ledge above water, responding to the divers that all 13 were there and that they were very hungry. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bill Whitehouse of the British Cave Rescue Council has been in touch with the divers 
 
 They ask how long they have been underground and whether they can leave now. The divers tell them they have to wait, but say people will come back for them. 
 
 One boy replies: "Oh. See you tomorrow." 
 
 The search for the group had gripped the nation as it was unclear where they were or whether they were even still alive. 
 
 Families of the missing group were ecstatic at news of their discovery. 
 
 Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said of the boys' discovery that "everybody is a hero". 
 
 "Thank you all Thais, thank you all foreigners," he said. 
 
 How did they get there? 
 
 The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach went missing on 23 June. It is believed they entered the cave when it was dry and sudden heavy rains blocked the exit. 
 
 They were found on a rock shelf about 4km (2.5 miles) from the mouth of the cave. 
 
 It is thought the boys could move through parts of the cave in dry conditions but rushing waters clogged the narrow passages with mud and debris, blocking visibility and access. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Families of the boys have been celebrating after finding out their loved ones are alive 
 
 One of the toughest stretches for the divers came as they neared the so-called Pattaya Beach - an elevated mound in the cave complex - where it was hoped the boys had sought refuge. 
 
 Divers had to navigate a series of sharp, narrow bends in near-darkness. They completed the difficult journey to find Pattaya Beach flooded, so swam on and found the boys about 400m away. 
 
 How can they get out? 
 
 Bringing the trapped boys to safety is an extremely dangerous task given the conditions inside. 
 
 The Tham Luang cave complex is regularly flooded during the rainy season which lasts until September or October. 
 
 Image copyright Facebook/ekatol Image caption A Facebook photo shows the coach with some of the missing children 
 
 Experts have cautioned that taking inexperienced divers through the dangerous corridors of muddy, zero-visibility waters would be very risky. 
 
 Diver Ben Reymenants, who is assisting with the rescue mission, told the BBC that two Thai navy doctors had volunteered to stay with the boys for "up to four months" until the water receded. 
 
 Other teams are still scouring the mountainside in the hope of finding another way into the cave. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Diver Ben Reymenants is assisting with the rescue mission and says none of the boys can swim 
 
 Who are they? 
 
 The 12 boys are all members of a local football team and their coach is known to have taken them on occasional excursions and field trips. 
 
 Tinnakorn Boonpiem, whose 12-year-old son Mongkol is among the 13, told Agence France-Presse she was "so glad" to hear they were safe. 
 
 "I want him to be physically and mentally fit," she said. 
 
 "I'm so happy I can't put it into words," another relative of one of the group told reporters as tears of joy streamed down his cheeks. ||||| CLOSE A British cave rescue expert said on Tuesday that rescuers in Thailand faced many challenges in bringing to the surface 13 people trapped in a flooded cave, but that he was hopeful for a successful outcome. (July 3) AP 
 
 Divers head to Tham Luang Nang Non cave to continue the rescue operation after the 12 boys and their soccer coach have been found alive in the cave where they've been missing for over a week on July 03, 2018. (Photo: Linh Pham, Getty Images) 
 
 Rescuers attempting to free a youth soccer team from a vast cave in northern Thailand face enormous obstacles if children who can't even swim are to don scuba gear and flee their watery prison before the rainy season ends in the fall. 
 
 Two volunteer British divers found the 12 boys and their coach Monday, more than a week after they disappeared into the labyrinth of twisting, narrow tunnels. The Thai military is now leading the international effort to rescue them. 
 
 "The average person can't imagine how difficult it would be," said Robert Laird, co-founder of the U.S.-based International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery. "These kids are not diving just to go diving. They are in a life-or-death situation." 
 
 Bill Whitehouse, vice chair of the British Cave Rescue Council whose divers found the boys, says rescuers face "significant technical challenges" and serious risks. The Thai rainy season, which can bring unrelenting downpours through November, adds a major wrinkle to the effort, he said. 
 
 "There is only a short break in the monsoon and all feasible options for the rescue of the boys are being considered," he said. "Although water levels have dropped, the diving conditions remain difficult. And any attempt to dive the boys and their coach out will not be taken lightly." 
 
 More: Boys may have to scuba to safety — even those who can’t swim 
 
 More: Thai soccer team found alive after 10 days lost in caves 
 
 Whiteside said equipment and air supplies have been successfully ferried in, enabling the divers to progress farther in to the cave system. Diving lines have been laid to the boys’ location for other divers to shuttle in essential food, comforts and medical supplies. 
 
 CLOSE Rescuers found a Thai youth soccer team alive in a cave after the 12 boys and coach went missing for over a week. USA TODAY 
 
 But he added the boys are located in a relatively small space that would make difficult any attempt to drill wider openings to extricate them. 
 
 Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said the boys will need to use scuba gear to make their way through some tunnels that are underwater. The children would be pushed or pulled with ropes by experienced divers. 
 
 Laird, who is not involved in the rescue, said the task is an immense one. He said people learning to scuba dive start in a pool, getting used to the gear before moving forward into open water and then, perhaps, caves. 
 
 These boys will be diving in tight spaces amid sharp rocks, flowing water and low or no visibility, he said. 
 
 "Every kid is going to be different," Laird said. "Some will be fine with it. Others will be freaked out. They are going to be encountering an environment unknown to them, so you are not going to be able to predict." 
 
 Authorities are even considering keeping the boys in the cave until the water completely recedes, even if it means the boys remain in the cave until fall. That however, would be brutal on the children and require many dangerous dives, even for experienced divers, to supply them. 
 
 "You have to consider the safety of the children," said U.S. Air Force Captain Jessica Tait, who is at the site with a U.S. rescue contingent. "Whatever decision the Thai government makes, we are fully supportive." 
 
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– For the first time since they got trapped in a cave in Thailand that flooded on June 23, 12 stranded boys and their soccer coach have had food brought to them. Divers reached the group inside the cave Tuesday, and along with food they brought a doctor and a nurse who are providing health checks and medical treatment, the BBC reports. Officials say all 13 are healthy, the AP reports; a diver tells Sky News they were weak after having had no solid food and surviving only on water. The group was found alive Monday, on a rock shelf inside an air pocket in the cave. But getting them out is no easy task, as it is believed most of them can't swim; they would need to don scuba diving masks and then navigate sharp turns and narrow passageways studded with sharp rocks and flooded with muddy, zero-visibility water and debris. Experienced divers would lead them to the exit using ropes, USA Today reports. But more heavy rain is in the forecast, which could cause water levels to rise further, threatening the safety of the air pocket. If the group does not swim out, they could be stuck in the cave for four months; the rainy season could last until October or November, and it will take time for the waters to recede. Two Thai navy doctors have volunteered to stay with the boys for months in such a situation. Meanwhile, rescue teams are looking for another way into the cave that could provide an easier exit, officials are trying to reduce the risk of further flooding by pumping water from the cave system, and a phone line is being installed so the boys' families can speak to them. Experts who spoke to USA Today say the challenges facing the "life or death" operation are immense; while diving lines have been laid and air supplies ferried in, even the rescuers themselves are undertaking risky dives every time they swim to reach the boys.