Two pairs of boys from the 12-member soccer team trapped with their coach in a flooded Thai cave for 16 days finally emerged from their underground hellhole Sunday in a death-defying rescue.

Local officials called the treacherous operation a race against time as the four "exhausted'' boys were led out of the murky, winding cave system by expert divers while the water was low — and before another monsoon was set to hit the region Monday and Tuesday.

More than three dozen doctors were at the scene to quickly assess the freed boys as they were loaded onto stretchers.