Engineers work around a pumping site at Tham Luang cave area as operations continue for the 12 boys and their coach trapped at the cave at Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province on July 5, 2018. - Thai rescuers on July 5 said they may be prodded into a complex extraction of 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave if forecast rains hammer the mountainside and jeopardise the rescue mission. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP) (Photo credit should read LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty Images)LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/Getty Images

Former Thai Navy SEAL Dies in Attempt to Rescue Soccer Team Trapped in Cave

Joseph ZuckerJul 5, 2018

A former Thai Navy SEAL died Friday while working to help rescue a soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand, the Associated Press reported (via ESPN.com).

According to the BBC, Petty Officer Saman Gunan was volunteering as part of the rescue effort to deliver supplies and died from a lack of oxygen. Fellow divers unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate Gunan after pulling him out of the water.

A Thai official told the BBC that Gunan was attempting to take oxygen inside the cave because of worries about the oxygen levels dropping with more and more workers entering the cave system.

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According to CBS News' Ben Tracy, rescue crews are also working to pump water out of the cave "before up to five inches of rain descends on the area."

The soccer team and its coach had been missing for nine days before British divers found them Monday and made contact.