UPDATE: Thailand PM arrives as eighth boy is been rescued

Reuters - UPDATE - July 10 08.27 am: Eight of the 12 boys trapped with their soccer coach in a labyrinthine flooded cave complex in northern Thailand had been freed, authorities said on Monday (July 9), adding that the time for rescuing the others would depend on the weather. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited the cave to inspect the rescue operation, with navy rescuers giving him a rousing cheer. Narongsak Osottanakorn, head of the rescue mission, told reporters that the four boys rescued on Monday had arrived at the hospital and were safe. The operation on Monday went more smoothly than on Sunday (July 8) and took two hours less as the practice became more refined, he said. The mission to save all the trapped is a race against the clock, with heavy rain expected this week which would again flood the tunnels with fast-flowing, rising water.   July 9 06.19 pm : Rescue workers in Thailand brought out on the fifth boy from a group of 12 and their soccer coach trapped for more than two weeks in a flooded cave complex, a navy official said, hours after the rescue mission resumed. A Reuters witness near the Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai saw medical personnel carrying a person, wrapped in green sheets and lying flat, into an ambulance close to the mouth of the cave. The first four boys were brought out on Sunday (July 8) and were in good condition in hospital, officials said. There was no immediate word on the condition of the fifth boy. The dangerous bid to rescue the boys -- aged between 11 and 16 -- resumed again hours earlier on Monday after a break to replenish oxygen supplies and make other preparations deep inside the cave complex.   July 9 | 05:00 PM: Four rescued boys were taken to Hospital where they were said to be in good health and recovering. The daring and dangerous bid to rescue the boys -aged between 11 and 16- and their soccer coach, was suspended by the mission chief late on Sunday (July 08)  to replenish oxygen supplies and make new preparations, which he said would take at least 10 hours. Authorities have said the mission could take three or four days to complete. July 8 | 07:00 PM The first two schoolboys have emerged from a flooded Thai cave after divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to rescue the children and their soccer coach, who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks, a Thai official said. "Two kids are out. They are currently at the field hospital near the cave," Tossathep Boonthong, chief of the health department in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, told Reuters. "We are giving them a physical examination." Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand's elite Navy SEAL unit are trying to bring the rest of the boys - some as young as 11 and weak swimmers - through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on Friday (July 6). Bursts of heavy monsoon rain soaked the Tham Luang Cave area in northern Chiang Rai province on Sunday (July 8) and storms were expected in the coming weeks, increasing the risks in what has been called a "war with water and time" to save the team. The boys, aged between 11 and 16, went missing with their 25-year-old coach after soccer practice on June 23, setting out on an adventure to explore the cave complex near the border with Myanmar and celebrate a boy's birthday.