Boy rescued from cave incident in Thailand dies in 2018

One of 12 boys rescued after two weeks trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018 has died in the UK, where he attended football school. The information was released by a former teacher this Wednesday (15).

Duangpetch Promthep, better known as “Dom”, was the captain of the “Wild Boars” team, whose seemingly impossible rescue by international divers and the Thai navy’s special operations force attracted enormous global attention.

Circumstances of 17-year-old Duangpetch’s death were not immediately clear. The news was shared on social media by a Buddhist monk who taught the boys in Chiang Rai province in Northern Thailand.

“Duangpetch Promthep has now gone to another world,” posted Supatpong Methigo on Facebook. “I hope he will be reborn and become my student again in the next life.”

Reuters could not independently confirm the death, which Supatpong said it heard from Duangpetch’s grandmother, who said she had been in an unspecified accident in the UK.

Former Thailand captain and coach Kiatisuk Senamuang, whose foundation helped Duangpetch secure a scholarship to the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire, described him as a polite and kind gentleman who dreamed of playing for his country.

“I wanted to see his dream come true…but rest well now Dom,” he posted on Instagram.

In June 2018, the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old assistant coach set out to explore the Tham Luang cave complex for just an hour, but ended up trapped by floodwaters.

They were found nine days later in a flooded chamber 4 kilometers from the entrance to the caves. The complicated rescue began six days later, in an unprecedented operation during which a retired Thai diver died.

Once rescued, the boys were invited to watch a Manchester United match and their story has been the subject of books, documentaries and films and, more recently, the Netflix series “Thai Cave Rescue”.

(Writing by Martin Petty; editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)