Thailand’s famous Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai will close to all visitors from February 19th to allow Thai Navy SEALs to recover equipment left in the cave after the international rescue mission extracted 13 members of the Wild Boar youth football team who became trapped by flooding last July.
Speaking on Friday, Mr. Kavee Prasomphol, chief of the Tham Luang-Khunnam Nangnon national park in Mae Sai district, said the closure of the cave would also allow naval officers to document the scene inside the cave. The areas surrounding the cave remain open to the public.
On January 17th 2019, a SEAL team and rescue workers, including British cave diver Vernon Unsworth and park officials, inspected the cave’s interior and found a large quantity of abandoned oxygen tanks, pumps and other equipment. They entered the cave system only as far as the third chamber, but have not yet reached the location where the footballers took refuge for more than two weeks.
