In June and July 2018, a junior association football team became trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non, a cave system in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, but were ultimately rescued.

On 2 July, after advancing through narrow passages and muddy waters, British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton found the group alive on an elevated rock about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from the cave mouth.

Saman Kunan, a 37-year-old former Royal Thai Navy SEAL, died of asphyxiation during an attempted rescue on 6 July while returning to a staging base in the cave after delivering diving cylinders to the trapped group.

The following year, in December 2019, rescue diver and Thai Navy SEAL Beirut Pakbara died of a blood infection contracted during the operation.

[13] The cave system is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) long and has many deep recesses, narrow passages and tunnels winding under hundreds of metres of limestone strata.

[14] On Saturday 23 June 2018, a group of 12 boys aged between 11 and 16, from a local junior football team named the Wild Boars, and their 25-year-old assistant coach, Ekkaphon Kanthawong,[15] went missing after exploring the caves.

[18][19][20][21] At around 7 pm that evening, the head coach and founder of the team, Nopparat Kanthawong (Thai: นพรัตน์ กัณฑะวงษ์), checked his phone and found about 20 missed calls from parents worried that their children had not returned.

[52][53][54][55][56] The search had to be suspended due to the weather, as rainfall increased the flow of water in the cave where the divers were battling strong currents and poor visibility.

"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.

[77] An estimated 10,000 people contributed to the rescue effort, including more than 100 divers, representatives from about 100 government agencies, 900 police officers, 2,000 soldiers and numerous volunteers.

[89] Helped by a spell of unseasonably dry weather, these efforts reduced water levels by 1.5 centimetres (0.6 in) per hour on 5 July, enabling the rescue teams to walk 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) into the cave.

The principal options were to:[86][92][93][75] Multiple dangers—the threat of more heavy rain, dropping oxygen levels, and the difficulty or impossibility of finding or drilling an escape passage—forced rescuers to make the decision to bring out the team and coach with experienced divers.

Ekkaphon also stated in their 18 July press conference, not realising at the time that their story had attracted global media attention: "We were thinking, when we get out of the cave, we would have to ride the bicycle home ... so the persons who live the furthest away would be allowed to go out first ... so that they can go out and tell everyone that we were inside, we were okay.

[125] After being delivered by the divers into the staging base in Chamber 3, the boys were passed along a "daisy chain" by hundreds of rescuers stationed along the treacherous path out of the cave.

[126] Wrapped in "sked" rescue stretchers, the boys were alternately carried, slid and zip-lined along a complex arrangement of pulleys installed by rock climbers.

[126] The authorities warned that the extraction would take several days to complete because crews had to replace air tanks, gear, and other supplies, requiring ten to twenty hours between each run.

The group gave thanks for the lives saved and asked forgiveness from the cave goddess "Jao Mae Tham" for the intrusion of pumps, ropes and people during the rescue.

[150] Some observers, primarily in Western media, questioned whether assistant coach Ekkaphon Kanthawong should face criminal charges for leading the group into the caves, despite the warning sign at the entrance stating that it is dangerous to enter between July and November.

[153] While the police chief told newspaper Khao Sod that he "hadn't ruled out" pressing negligence charges against the coach for putting the team in danger, no calls were made to take legal action against him.

"[154][155][156] The coach was reported to have treated the boys with care, giving them his food, helping them remain calm, and instructing them to drink the relatively clean water dripping from the cave walls instead of the murky floodwaters that trapped them.

[200] FC Barcelona invited the team to play in their international academy tournament in 2019 and to watch a first-team game at their home stadium, Camp Nou.

[201] England and Manchester City defender Kyle Walker offered to send football shirts to the team, having noticed that one of the rescued boys was wearing a Three Lions jersey.

[205] On 7 July, Elon Musk stated that engineers from SpaceX and the Boring Company planned to build a "tiny, kid-sized submarine" made from the liquid oxygen transfer tube from a Falcon rocket.

[211] Vern Unsworth, who helped get the attention of British cave rescue divers, ridiculed the "mini-sub" as a public relations stunt and suggested in a CNN interview that Musk "stick his submarine where it hurts".

[226] Realising the massive tourism potential, the Thai authorities announced plans to turn the cave into a living museum to showcase the multinational rescue effort.

[228] However, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha highlighted the concerns for tourist safety and stated that the cave was "dangerous",[228] insisting that the site could not be reopened until adequate precautions had been implemented to safeguard visitors.

[229] It first went on display at Wat Rong Khun, a Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai province, before being moved to a memorial pavilion near the Tham Luang cave entrance in December 2018.

[230] Saman Kunan, the former Thai Navy SEAL who died during the rescue operation, is commemorated with a twice life-size bronze statue situated in front of the memorial pavilion.

[231] Designed by renowned national artist Chalermchai Kositpipat[232] and produced at a fine art foundry in Thailand's Ayutthaya province, the statue depicts Kunan with 13 wild boars at his feet, symbolising the 12 boys and their football coach.

[233] After the forest park was reopened on 16 November 2018, thousands of tourists flocked to the site, but they were not allowed inside the cave as work was under way on creating a living museum dedicated to the rescue.