Lao PDR supports rescue mission of young Thai soccer team

BANGKOK, July 1 (TNA) - Neighboring Lao PDR has sent a team of divers to support the ongoing mission to rescue a team of 12 young Thai soccer trainees and a coach. Expressing his concerns over the plight of the young Thai soccer trainees, aged 11-16 years old, and their 25-year-old coach, who have been missing in a deep, flooded cave in the Thai North since June 23, New Lao Ambassador to Thailand Seng Soukhathivong said that the Lao diving team arrived in Thailand late last week to join the rescue mission. The newly-appointed top Lao envoy made the remarks while paying a courtesy call on Thai Army Chief General Chalermchai Sittisart at the Royal Thai Army Headquarters in Bangkok, during which the Thai army commander-in-chief also presented 70 footballs to impoverished Lao schools, through the Lao Embassy in Bangkok, to support their young players. On the occasion, the new Lao ambassador and the Thai army chief also joined a friendly Thai-Lao football match, organized at the Royal Thai Army Headquarters. Meanwhile, the rescue mission, led by the Royal Thai Navy's Sea, Air and Land Teams (Navy SEALs) and joined by multiple parties including foreign volunteers, has been continually searching for the missing Thai soccer team in the Tham Luang Cave in the compound of the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai District of the northern Chiang Rai Province so far. (TNA)