Bodies of Four Missing Italian Divers Found in Maldives Cave

The bodies of four Italian divers missing since Thursday have been located inside a 60-metre-deep cave in Vaavu Atoll, Maldivian officials confirmed to the BBC. One body belonging to a fifth member of the group had already been recovered near the cave entrance shortly after the incident.

A joint team of Finnish and Maldivian divers located the remaining four in the cave's third section, the furthest point from the entrance.

The five Italians entered the water at Vaavu Atoll on Thursday morning as part of a University of Genoa research mission to study coral. The group included Prof Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, researchers Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri, and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.

They were reported missing later that day when they failed to resurface. Police noted rough weather conditions in the area, roughly 100 km south of the capital Male, and had issued a yellow warning for passenger boats and fishermen.

A Maldivian rescue diver, Staff Sgt Mohamed Mahdhee, died on Saturday while searching for the bodies. He was part of a team of eight divers who entered the water that day. "Eight rescue divers went into the water today. When they surfaced, they realised Mr Mahdhee didn't come up," Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesperson, told the BBC.

The remaining divers immediately returned to the water and found Mahdhee unconscious. An investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the accident. "Further dives [are] to be carried out in the coming days to recover the bodies," Shareef said in a message to the BBC.

Italy's foreign ministry stated the four bodies were found in the cave's third section and that additional dives would be required to bring them to the surface. The incident is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the Maldives, a popular tourist destination known for its coral islands.

Recreational scuba divers are normally limited to a maximum depth of 30 metres, and officials noted the proposal for the research mission did not mention cave exploration.