BANGKOK: A former teacher said on Wednesday that one of the 12 boys who were miraculously freed after spending two weeks trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018 has passed away in Britain, where he was attending a soccer academy.
Duangpetch Promthep, more commonly referred to as "Dom," was the captain of the "Wild Boars" team. Their improbable rescue by international divers and Thai navy SEALs drew a lot of international attention. The circumstances surrounding the death of Duangpetch, a 17-year-old, were unclear. The boys' teacher, Supatpong Methigo, shared the news on social media. Reuters was unable to independently confirm Duangpetch's death, which Supatpong claimed he learned about from Duangpetch's grandmother, who claimed he had been in a British accident of unknown cause.
The boys, who ranged in age from 11 to 16, and their assistant coach, who was 25 years old, set out in June 2018 to explore the Tham Luang cave complex, but they got stuck in flood waters. Nine days later, they were discovered in a flooded chamber four kilometers from the caves' entrance. Six days later, an unprecedented operation began their complicated extraction. The story of the boys has been told in books, movies, and documentaries, most recently in the Netflix series "Thai Cave Rescue."