Thai boys passed “sleeping” on stretchers through the treacherous cave during rescue mission

Chiang Rai : The 12 Thai boys rescued from the cave were passed “sleeping” on stretchers through the treacherous passageways, a former Thai Navy SEAL said yesterday, giving the first clear details of an astonishing rescue mission that has captivated the world.

Commander Chaiyananta Peeranarong told AFP that some of them were asleep, some of them were wiggling their fingers... (as if ) groggy, but they were breathing. “My job was to transfer them along,” he said, adding the “boys were wrapped up in stretchers already when they were being transferred”.

Junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha on Tuesday said the boys had been given a “minor tranquiliser” to prevent anxiety inside the narrow, twisting passages, many of which were submerged.

But he denied they were knocked out for an operation the rescue chief had called “mission impossible”. Thai authorities imposed a media lockdown during the evacuation, even holding large white umbrellas around the boys as they lay in stretchers outside the cave as they were transferred to helicopters bound for hospital.