The 2018 rescue of a youth soccer team trapped in a flooded cave took place in Thailand.
On 23 June 2018, 12 boys from the Wild Boars junior football team and their 25-year-old assistant coach entered Tham Luang Nang Non in Chiang Rai province after practice. Heavy monsoon rain flooded passages behind them, leaving the group stranded deep inside the cave system.
Divers found the group alive on 2 July, after nine days underground. An international operation involving Thai Navy SEALs, military personnel, police, medical teams, and specialist cave divers then planned a dangerous extraction through narrow, submerged passages. All 12 boys and their coach were brought out between 8 and 10 July.
The event is sometimes called the Thai cave rescue because it occurred in northern Thailand, near the Myanmar border. A common mix-up is confusing the cave’s location with Chiang Mai, a larger and better-known Thai city; the rescue site was in Chiang Rai province. Former Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan died during the operation while delivering air tanks, underscoring its risks.