Scenes of jubilant Thais celebrating a successful rescue mission with dance, songs and cheers have filled social media:

This is immediately following the successful extraction of all 13 individuals of a local football team from a cave in Chiang Rai.

The Wild Boars football team and their coach were pulled out of a flooded cave on Tuesday, July 10, after a complicated three-day operation to extricate them.

The team became trapped on June 23 when rising flood water cut them off deep inside the cave and were found nine days later.

Cheers on the streets

Cheers erupted at a local government office where dozens of volunteers and journalists were awaiting updates on the success of the mission.

On the streets, people cheered and clapped when ambulances ferrying the last of the boys arrived at the city's hospital, about 72km from the cave.

One of the volunteers who helped provide food and necessities to rescue workers and journalists, described the operation's success as a "miracle".

"I'm happy for Thais all over the country, for the people of Mae Sai, and actually just everyone in the world because every news channel has presented this story and this is what we have been waiting for," she said.

Mae Sai is the district where the cave is located, in the northern part of Chiang Rai province, near the border with Myanmar.

A local village chairman who was working as a volunteer translator for the tourist police, was beaming with happiness.

"If this place had a roof, the morale has gone straight through it," he said.

"This is an important event in my life. It is something I will remember," added a visibly emotional official at Chiang Rai's provincial press office.

"There were times when I cried," he said. "Happy. Very happy to see all Thai people love each other."

[related_story]

Thais turned to social media on Tuesday to show their elation using the hashtag #Hooyah, a word used by the navy to build morale.

Other hashtags included #Heroes and #Thankyou.