Musk faces legal action after 'pedo' tweet

A British caver who helped rescue 12 boys from a Thai cave yesterday said he may take legal action against Elon Musk after the entrepreneur called him a "pedo".

Tesla CEO Musk launched the extraordinary tirade against Vernon Unsworth without providing any justification or explanation, after the cave expert slammed his offer of a miniature submarine to extract the footballers from the Tham Luang cave as a "PR stunt".

The "Wild Boar" team were rescued last week by an international team of divers through a narrow network of twisting, flooded tunnels.

Unsworth, who provided mapping knowledge of the cave to rescuers, said Musk's prototype would have had "absolutely no chance of working".

Musk responded Sunday in a bizarre series of tweets referring to Unsworth, without using his name, as "pedo guy". "Pedo" is short for paedophile.

Musk later deleted the tweets and did not immediately respond to a request for comment through Tesla.

The caver said he would make a decision when he flies back to the UK this week, but added that the episode with Musk "ain't finished".

Unsworth, who lives part of the year in Thailand, took part in the gargantuan 18-day effort to retrieve the 12 boys and their coach, a mission that ended on July 10 when the last five members were extracted.

The boys are all in good health and expected to be released from the hospital Thursday.