The remaining "Wild Boars" and their coach have emerged from a flooded cave in northern Thailand and been taken to hospital.
Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn, centre, beams as he attends a press briefing on the mission to rescue the boys trapped in Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province, Thailand. Photo: AFP / Bangkok Post
The rescue operation began yesterday at 10.08am local time (3.08pm NZT) and went at a similar pace to the previous evening's mission.
The perilous mission to save the 'Wild Boars' football team and their coach has gripped the world for days.
The rescue mission commander, Narongsak Osottanakorn has confirmed that all 12 boys, their coach, and four Thai Navy SEALS who spent a week underground with them, have been brought out.
All were taken to hospital in Chiang Rai, after the third and final day of the rescue operation.
Eight boys were brought out on stretchers over the first two days.
A team of Thai Navy SEALS and foreign divers guided four boys out on Sunday and a further four on Monday through narrow, murky flooded channels from deep inside the Tham Luang cave where they had been stranded for more than two weeks.
Read more on the final rescue as it happened.
A billboard with a photograph of members of the football team and their coach reads 'welcome home brothers'. Photo: AFP
The rescued boys were treated by medics at the field hospital, and were later airlifted to a larger nearby hospital.
They have not been seen in public.
The Thai authorities earlier yesterday said the first eight rescued boys were in good health, although they had to be kept in isolation to prevent their catching an infection, and had not had direct contact with their families yet.
The boys became trapped in the cave on 23 June after heavy rains caused flooding, but were found alive last week by divers.
At that stage, they had been stuck nearly 4km inside the network for nine days, without any contact with the outside world.
Rescue authorities immediately began pumping millions of litres of water out of the complex, both to lower the level and in the hope of keeping it low, as heavy monsoon rains approached.
Having spent several days preparing a dive line and oxygen tanks along the exit route, rescuers decided to go ahead with the operation to free the team on Sunday, because of fears the waters would rise again.
It was earlier than expected, but they were taking advantage of a break in the rain.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited the cave to inspect the operation, receiving a rousing cheer from navy divers.
Thai Navy divers in the cave system in the early stages of the rescue. Forty divers from Thailand and 50 from overseas worked on the rescue. Photo: AFP / Royal Thai Navy
A team of 90 expert divers - 40 from Thailand and 50 from overseas - has been working in the cave system.
They guided the boys and their coach, one by one, through darkness and submerged passageways towards the mouth of the Tham Luang cave system, in an exhausting eight-hour round trip.
Twice, the rescue mission was paused for about 10 hours to let the 18 divers performing the evacuations recover.
The process included a mixture of walking, wading, climbing and diving along guide ropes put in place.
Wearing full-face masks, which are easier for novice divers than traditional respirators, each boy was accompanied by three divers, one of whom also carried his air supply.
The toughest part was about halfway out, at a section named T-Junction, so tight the divers had to take off their air tanks to get through.
Beyond that, a cavern - called Chamber 3 - was turned into a forward base for the divers.
There, the boys could rest before making the last, easier walk out to the entrance. They were then taken to hospital in Chiang Rai.
In an indication of how dangerous the journey could be, a former Thai navy diver died in the caves on Friday.
Saman Gunan was returning from a mission to provide the group with air tanks when he ran out of oxygen.
He lost consciousness and could not be revived.
His colleagues said they would "not let the sacrifice of our friend go to waste".
Mr Gunan is to be buried this week with full military honours.
- BBC / Reuters