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Watch: Schoolboys' perilous Thai cave 4km escape route explained in graphics

July 9, 2018

The journey for even the most able of the trapped Thai boys is expected to take six hours.

The perilous rescue operation to bring back 12 boys and their football coach through a flooded Thai cave network is part way complete, but what is the confined underwater ordeal like for the boys with no diving experience? 

Heavy rain and a lack of oxygen has made getting the boys out more urgent, and early this morning Thai Navy Seal divers safely traversed the 4km route with four of the boys - who are now recovering in hospital.

The divers had been rehearsing a buddy system to get the boys out 

Here is a simplified diagram explanation of the Tham Luang cave the boys are stranded in showing what's at stake. 

The long, and in places very narrow, cave burrows deep into a mountain in northern Thailand.

In places the passage is so tight divers have to take the scuba tank off their backs and carry their gear through one piece at a time.

The narrowest section is just 38 centimetres wide.

This particularly narrow section is also further complicated by it being situated on a sharp upward bend in the passage.

Another concern for the remaining boys is their health and conditioning to make the arduous trip after nine days without food before they were found by navy divers.

Even for expert divers, the point at which the football team have become stranded takes about six hours to reach from the cave entrance.

For the boys who can't swim, this 4km back to safety will likely take much longer.

The original group of 12 young footballers were aged 11 to 16, and their coach Tham Luang is 25.

It was initially thought the first four boys to make the journey would be those in the most resilient physical shape.

However reports are now being made that the four boys rescued early this morning NZT were the weakest. 

Channel Nine’s Alice Monfries has a 7.20am update after the rescue earlier this morning.

The the next phase in the rescue operation is set for around 1-2pm (NZT) today at the earliest, involving a further three trapped boys, but an update from an Australian reporter at the scene says a downpour in Thailand today is creating concerns.

"It has been raining incredibly heavy, we've had these huge monsoonal rains that have hit overnight," Channel Nine's Alice Monfries said this morning.

"They've been raining for the last four to five hours and the concern is that water is running straight back down into the cave and there are big concerns that that could in some way hamper this rescue effort.

Danish volunteer Ivan Karadzic owns a diving school in Koh Tao and told the Sydney Morning Herald that conditions underground in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave are treacherous.

The boys are thought to be at least 2km deep into the cave, which has at least five sections where underwater dives are required to navigate through narrow passages.

Dive tanks are needed on the journey in and out - the average tank holds about 2200 litres of air, and a skilled diver uses between 15-20 litres per minute near the surface, with that amount increasingly rapidly at depth.

That adds up to about two hours of air per tank - meaning multiple tanks must be hauled by rescuers trying to reach the boys.

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