Duangpetch Promthep, the captain of the Thai boys soccer team that endured a harrowing three-week experience in a flooded cave in 2018 before they were rescued, has died in England.

He was 17.

His death was confirmed on Facebook on Wednesday by the Zico Foundation, a Thai non-profit group that had helped him secure a scholarship to a high school in England. No cause of death was given.

Known to his friends as Dom, the teenager was one of 12 boys who ventured into Tham Luang Cave, a warren of complex underground passages in Chiang Rai province, along with their coach after soccer practice.

After heavy rain filled the cave entrance, the boys and their coach moved deeper into its recesses to avoid drowning, leaving them trapped. Their extraordinary escape involved Thai Navy Seals, expert cave divers from around the world and workers from several government agencies using water pumps, guide ropes and air tanks to bring them back along a watery, two-mile route.

The rescue was hailed as a miraculous feat of human collaboration.

New York Times News Service