Eighth boy is rescued: Two thirds of football team are FREED from Thai cave and flown to hospital - leaving just four children and their coach trapped 800metres underground

• Four more boys have been rescued from the cave in the northern Chiang Rai region, Thailand, on Monday
• Hazardous rescue operations to save 12 young Thai footballers from a flooded cave began Sunday morning  
• A parent said they had been told six of the eight remaining boys will be brought out by Monday evening 
• Rescue mission is expected to be quicker than Sunday's rescue, with the same diving team going in again  
• Four members of the football team were brought out on Sunday evening and taken to hospital 

Four more boys have been rescued today from the cave complex in northern Thailand where a youth football team became trapped two weeks ago, leaving just four teammates and their football coach stuck underground.

The first of today's rescued Wild Boar FC players, whose identities have not yet been confirmed, was seen being carried out on a stretcher shortly before 5pm local time, a few hours after the mission entered its second day.

A helicopter then took off from a make-shift landing zone close to the Tham Luang National Park en route for the Chiang Rai Pranukroh Hospital, to the cheers of the rescue team, volunteers and family members on the ground.

Boys number six and seven was brought out little over an hour later, with boy number eight spotted being taken into an ambulance shortly afterwards. 

The 12 youth team players and their 25-year-old coach went missing on June 23, having become trapped inside the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the northern Chiang Rai region by rising flood water.  

The fifth rescued Thai cave boy is carried on a stretcher from a police helicopter to a waiting ambulance at a military airport in Chiang Rai on Monday 

Five out: An ambulance with flashing lights is seen leaving the cave on Monday after a fifth boy was rescued during the second day of the mission to save the 12 members of a youth football team and their coach

Transfer: Rescued boy number five is transported from an ambulance into a helicopter, which flew him to hospital, on Monday

Waiting to be rescued: The eight boys remaining in the cave, pictured, four of whom are thought to be brought out today

‘The sixth and the seventh Wild Boar are out of the cave,’ a relative of one of them told MailOnline. ‘They got out at about 6.30pm.

‘They are in the field hospital now. Then they will go to the hospital in Chiang Rai.’ 

Earlier, a father of one of the footballers claims as many as six of the boys, aged 11 to 16, are set to be brought out today, after four were rescued yesterday. 

He said: ‘I believe six more children will come out of the cave today.’ 

The first rescue of today came shortly after the commander of the mission, Narongsak Osottanakorn, said 'oxygen bottles are ready... in  the next few hours we will have good news'.

He announced the operation had restarted four hours ahead of schedule on Monday morning.  

Thai police and military personnel used an umbrella to shield the helicopter evacuation at a military airbase in Chiang Rai on Monday, as a fifth boy was flown from the cave and transferred to hospital 

Meanwhile, worried parents waiting at the entrance - many of whom have been holding 24-hour vigils despite the overnight rains - say they are still not being told 'anything' about which boys are about to emerge from the cave, and can do nothing but wait. 

The same 12 divers, including several from the UK with 'expertise in cave diving', will conduct today's operation, and it is expected to be a quicker rescue than on Sunday as the divers are now familiar with the circumstances.  

Authorities have been rushing to extract the boys and their coach from the cave as monsoon rains bore down overnight.

However, officials said the heavy downpours had not raised water levels in the cave, where workers continue to pump water out.

Earlier today, divers placed new oxygen tanks along the way out of the underground network as part of preparations to repeat yesterday's mission.

'We've been working continuously overnight,' a Chiang Rai government source told AFP on Monday morning, requesting anonymity, and confirming that there had only been a pause of the actual extraction operations. 

With very few details released, parents of the remaining boys in the cave continued their agonising wait to be reunited with their sons on Monday.

'I am still waiting here at the cave, keeping my fingers crossed to see whether my son will be one of those to come out today,' Supaluk Sompiengjai, mother of Peerapat - known by his nickname 'Night' - told AFP.

'We heard four boys are out but we do not know who they are. Many parents are still here waiting. None of us has been informed of anything.' But she added she was 'happy' at the prospect of seeing her son again. 

Her husband Somboon said parents had been told they would not be able to visit their sons once rescued.

'We have not been told which child has been brought out... We can't visit our boys in hospital because they need to be monitored for 48 hours,' he told Reuters.

Back to work: Policemen line up on the main road leading to the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai, Thailand, as the rescue mission resumed on Monday

Thai police officers and soldiers secure the area as ambulances drive in for standby during the rescue operation to evacuate 12 boys

Sunday's 'masterpiece' three-and-a-half-hour mission, led by expert British divers, saw four children being calmly guided to safety after 15 days of being stuck in their fetid underground prison. 

Wearing full-face masks, the youngsters swam – for the first time in their lives – through miles of mud-clogged underwater tunnels which claimed the life of an elite Thai navy diver on Friday.

On finally emerging blinking into the daylight, the boys were hugged by their British rescuers before being taken to hospital.

Speaking in Bangkok, Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said the four pulled from the cave 'are strong and safe' and in the care of doctors.

The first boy out was Monhkhol Boonpiam, 13, known as Mark. The second boy was Prajak Sutham, known as Note.

Number three was Nattawoot Thakamsai, a 14-year-old asthma sufferer whose parents have already lost a baby daughter to cancer.

Lastly came Pipat Bodhu, 15, aka Nick, who was not even in the team but came along as a friend of the goalkeeper. 

A Thai rescuer attends to oxygen tanks at the mouth of the cave. Divers were busy placing new ones in the cave on Monday

Four out: The four children The starved and exhausted players were carried on stretchers from an ambulance to a helicopter near the caves before being flown to hospital

Eight other young players and their 25-year-old coach of the Wild Boars football team were chosen to remain in the cavern – half a mile deep – until today.

Commanders paused the mission overnight to replenish oxygen supplies and give the rescuers a break. But they remain 'at war with water and time' as torrential monsoon downpours deluged the Tham Luang cave, in the hilly jungle of northern Thailand, and threatened to flood it even further.

They said a combination of the weakest and the strongest boys had been selected to attempt yesterday's perilous operation. 

The children, who have spent more than two weeks more or less in complete darkness will receive individual counselling with a psychiatrist as they return to life above ground, a teacher at Mae Sai Prasitsart school where several of the boys study said.

He added that they will be let off their upcoming exams next week. 

'They will not have to follow the normal schedules,' Thongyaud Kejorn said at a press conference on Monday morning. 

Another ambulance is seen arriving at the hospital where 35 emergency doctors are on standby waiting on the kids' arrival

Yesterday, the Thai king led tributes to rescuers and the schoolboys as scenes of joyful weeping nationwide were shown on television. US President Donald Trump offered his congratulations.

Note's aunt told the Daily Mail he was a strong, caring, intelligent boy who dreamed of becoming a professional footballer, adding that he would be so excited by an offer from football chiefs to the World Cup final in Moscow that 'he would punch the air'.

The mother of Mark, the first boy out, has always kept the faith. Namhom Boonpiam staunchly declared: 'I believe he will survive.' However, even after their ordeal is over, the children could still suffer post traumatic stress disorder, experts have warned.

Their experience is expected to lead to nightmares, sleep problems, stomach and headaches and clinginess with parents, as well as getting angry and upset more easily.

Dr Andrea Dese, head of the stress and development lab at Kings College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, said: 'In the longer term, most children will recover from the initial emotional symptoms.

A sizeable minority, 10 to 30 per cent, will however experience enduring mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety disorders and PTSD.'

Outside the cave entrance, there was still torment for the families of the boys left behind 'until tomorrow or the next day'.

Thai military personnel inside a cave complex during the ongoing rescue operations for the youth soccer team and their assistant coach, at Tham Luang cave in Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park

Thousands of rescuers including Thai Navy SEALs and elite British divers have been working around the clock to come up with a plan to bring the exhausted and starved boys home safely

Over several tense hours, seven crack British cave divers hailed as the masters of their profession escorted the four schoolchildren through narrow, jagged tunnels.

With them were five other international divers and five Thai navy SEALS, and more than 70 other divers in support roles, 50 of whom were foreigners. 

The commander of yesterday's operation, regional governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said as the operation commenced: 'Today we are most ready. Today is D-Day.' Fearing further flooding, he said the children, aged 11 to 16, might be stuck until January if they ignored yesterday's chance.

He added: 'Today we reached peak readiness – in terms of kids' health, water and our rescue readiness. It has been our masterpiece work.'

Yesterday's operation proceeded faster than expected thanks to the success of a pumping operation which has drained 190million litres from the cave network, making some parts walkable.

Coming home: The evacuation of 12 schoolboys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand has begun and they could be out by tonight, the rescue commander announced on Sunday morning 

Mr Osatanakorn said a one-mile passage from the cave entrance to the third chamber, a staging ground for the mission, was 'mostly walkable', adding: 'Although there are some slightly difficult parts [where] we have to bend or crawl, we can say that we can just walk through it.'

The third teenager rescued from the cave was said to need immediate medical attention, and instead of being taken by ambulance he was airlifted to hospital straight from the cave mouth.

The less seriously ill boys went by road, with parts of the 45-mile route lined by traffic policemen.

Last night, the Thai navy SEALS posted a message to their Facebook page which said: 'Have a good dream tonight. Night. Hooyah.'