AP PHOTOS: Under pouring rain, Thai cave search a muddy slog

MAE SAI, Thailand — Caves may be magical places in the eyes of explorers, but as millions of Thais following the desperate search this week for a dozen schoolboys and their soccer coach trapped inside a massive flooded cavern have learned, they are also dangerous.

"Dark, silent and often impenetrable, caves are deeply mysterious and, as such, they have always had a strong fascination in human societies," said Edoardo Siani, who teaches cultural anthropology at Kyoto University. "They can also be inaccessible and lethal."

The teams who have been searching for the boys, including Thai navy SEAL divers struggling through muddy water in pitch-dark chambers, have come up against that inaccessibility.

For Thais, Siani said, caves are like the otherworld — "a place that is at the same time powerful, alien, fascinating and scary."

The soldiers, specialists and volunteers working at the cave may wonder what grim spirits have been pouring down near-constant rain, hindering the search and making the area a muddy mess that has turned even the simplest of tasks into a slog, as Associated Press photographer Sakchai Lalit documents in these images.

Through it all, though, hope remains that the boys and their coach can be found alive.

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