New Delhi: One of the 12 boys rescued in the Tham Luang cave rescue mission in northern Thailand in 2018, has died in the UK.


According to BBC, Duangpetch Promthep is reported to have sustained a head injury, but the cause of the death is not clear. 




His mother informed the Wat Doi Wao temple in his hometown in Chiang Rai, which the team frequently visited, of his death. Some of his teammates from the cave rescue also took to social media to share the news of his demise.


Last year, he enrolled in the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicester, when he was 17 years old. Promthep, also known as Dom, was the captain of the Thai boys' football team, which was trapped along with their coach for two weeks while exploring the six-mile Tham Luang cave in the Doi Nang Non-mountain range in June 2018.


The temple condoled the death of the youngster on Facebook on Wednesday and said, "May Dom’s soul rest in peace’ alongside pictures of the team with monks."


One of his friends, who was also in the cave, wrote on Facebook: "Rip my dear friend. The 12 of us have been through a lot of things together, sadness, happiness, risk of death and many difficulties together. You told me to wait and see when you join the national team."


He further wrote, "I always believed that you can do it. When we met last time before going to England, I still told you jokingly that I have to ask for your signature when I come back. Rest in peace, my friend. We will always be 12 of us."




Zico Foundation, a Thai non-profit that had helped Promthep win a scholarship to study in England, also expressed condolences on Facebook.







Promthep was a member of the Wild Boars football team, which had ventured into the Tham Luang cave on June 23, 2018, and was later trapped by rising flood waters for over two weeks.

 

He was 13 at the time, while his teammates were aged between 11 and 16.