The children rescued from the Thai cave and their rescuers receive the "112 Prizes"
The twelve Thai children who were trapped in a cave in 2018 and the divers who rescued them have been awarded by the European Association of the Emergency Number (EENA, for its acronym in English).
The award ceremony of the "112 Awards" took place last night in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, next to the Adriatic Sea, as part of the annual conference that EENA celebrates this week, reported the Croatian agency Hina.
In the category "International Cooperation" the award was given to the more than one hundred divers from different countries who participated in the difficult rescue of the twelve schoolchildren and their monitor, trapped for more than two weeks in an underground cave in Thailand after a flood. One of the rescuers, Saman Gunan, 38, died drowned when he was returning from a mission to take supplies to the children.
On behalf of the divers, the Danish Ivan Karadzic received the award from the Croatian Minister of the Interior, Davor Bozinoviç.
The solidarity and courage of the minors was recognized with the Team Bravery Award, awarded to the soccer team "Moo Pa" ("Wild Boars") to which they belonged.
With the Prize for the Coordination of Rescue, the work of the Special Unit of the Royal Thai Navy was honored for its effective coordination of activities.
"The 112 Awards Ceremony celebrates the heroes of today, and we reward those who go beyond what is expected to help people in danger," EENA said on its website.
Among others awarded this year for "incredible rescues and inspiring acts of citizens" highlights Mamoudou Gassama, the undocumented Malian who saved the life of a four-year-old boy who had been hanging from a balcony of a Paris building.
Gassama, baptized as "the Malian Spiderman" by the French press after seeing him quickly climb four floors to rescue the small suspended in the void, received the Act of Courage Award.
