World News posted Jul 6, 2018 @ 05:40am by Josh Duncan

Former Thai Navy Seal dies trying to rescue boys trapped in cave

It’s a story that’s gripped all corners of the world for the past two weeks.

Twelve boys and their soccer coach are trapped in a cave in northern Thailand and, despite the fact that they’ve been found, their rescue is a whole other challenge.

A tragic incident on Thursday sheds some light on how difficult this rescue mission is, as the boys are stuck 4 kilometres into the cave.

Saman Guman, a former Thai Navy Seal, died while trying to deliver oxygen tanks to the trapped soccer team.

This is Saman Guana, the former Thai navy seal who has died in the cave trying to free the 12 boys and their soccer coach.

A hero to this country and to everyone hoping for their safety pic.twitter.com/SURTQuimwl
— James Longman (@JamesAALongman) July 6, 2018

According to the BBC, the highly trained diver ran out of of oxygen during the 11 hour trip in and out of the cave and was unable to be revived by his diving partner.

His death came during a rush to try and take advantage of lower flood waters, rather than waiting weeks or months to extract the trapped boys.

<who>Photo Credit: BBC/French Federation of Speleology

"At first, we thought the children could stay for a long time... but now things have changed, we have a limited time," said Apakorn Yookongkaew, Thailand’s Navy Seal commander.

Around 1,000 people are involved in the complex rescue operation.

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