Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, on Friday dispatched engineers from his companies, SpaceX and The Boring Company, to Thailand to help with the rescue of 12 young boys and their football coach who have been trapped for two weeks in the Tham Luang caves of northern Chiang Rai province.

Mr Musk initially responded to requests for help from Twitter users, but later outlined a more detailed strategy using his companies’ pumps, battery packs and tubes, to help the boys, aged 11-16, escape the horrific imprisonment they have now endured for two weeks.

The businessman suggested inserting a one-metre diameter nylon tube through the cave network and inflating it with air "like a bouncy castle" to create an air tunnel underwater against the cave roof, allowing the children to walk through it and duck through the narrow sections.

His idea comes amid increasingly desperate efforts to free the youth football team through the onerous method of draining water from a 2.5-mile-long twisting and submerged labyrinth of tunnels separating them from the exit.

On Friday night, speculation rose ahead of a press conference with the interior minister that the evacuation of the boys might be imminent.