Ambulances have arrived at the Thailand cave site where rescue teams have been making preparations to save 12 trapped boys and their soccer coach amid reports the rescue could be underway — or at least imminent.
Speaking over a loudspeaker, Thai authorities on Sunday ordered an evacuation of the area around the Tham Luang cave complex so that a "rescue operation" could take place.
"Those unrelated to the rescue operation, please evacuate the area immediately."
Speaking from the site, ABC correspondent Anne Barker said: "It's very clear that if the rescue hasn't begun already, that it will be imminent."
The announcement from Thai authorities came early on Sunday as dark monsoon rainclouds loomed over the mountainous north of the country.
Media have also been blocked from entering the cave and moved about 500 metres away from the operations centre.
A heavy rain shower hit northern Thailand overnight, worsening conditions at the cave where rescuers were waging a "war with water and time".
"[It's] looking like there will be very heavy rain by about midday local time and then continuing for most of the afternoon and potentially into tomorrow," Barker told ABC News.
"Once the heavy rains were going to hit, it was always going to be the deciding factor.
"They know once the monsoonal rains start to flow back into the cave, water levels will rise no matter how hard they pump all that water out, which they've been doing continuously for two weeks now.
"So they must take advantage of the water levels being as low as possible, as they have been in the last couple of days."
Thai cave rescue
Lets hope this works. The key will be keeping them calm in a several kilometre swim in near zero visibility.
I hope it goes well. This is no doubt going to be extremely difficult.
crossing my fingers hard
2 boys have already been rescued.
Well they aren't wasting any time
dang the article said it would take another 2 hours for the first boys to come out, they ain't slacking.
Presumably they're moving quickly due to this.
>A heavy rain shower hit northern Thailand overnight, worsening conditions at the cave where rescuers were waging a "war with water and time".
