The bodies of four Italian divers who went missing during a scuba diving accident in the Maldives last week have been found. This information was confirmed to the BBC by officials, reports UNN.
Details
One body, belonging to a fifth member of the group, had already been recovered following the incident that occurred on Thursday.
According to local authorities, the Italian citizens were found in a 60-meter deep cave at Vaavu Atoll by a joint team of highly qualified Finnish and Maldivian divers. A rescue diver also died on Saturday while searching for the group's bodies.
"Further dives will be conducted in the coming days to retrieve the bodies," Mohamed Hussain Shareef, a spokesperson for the Maldivian government, said in a message to the BBC.
Addendum
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the four bodies are located in the third section of the cave – the furthest from the entrance – and that additional dives will be required to retrieve them.
It is believed that the body of the first Italian victim was found near the entrance of the same cave on Thursday.
This incident is considered the worst single diving accident in this tiny Indian Ocean nation, a popular tourist destination due to its string of coral islands.
The four Italian divers were part of a team from the University of Genoa: Professor Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, and researchers Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri.
The fifth Italian victim was boat operations manager and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti. The group entered the water at Vaavu Atoll on Thursday morning and was declared missing after failing to resurface later. Police reported that there was bad weather in the area, approximately 100 km south of the capital, Malé. A yellow alert had been issued for passenger boats and fishermen.
Five Italians died while exploring underwater caves in the Maldives15.05.26, 22:41 • 7226 views
A presidential spokesperson stated that the group had permission to conduct their research mission to study corals, including deep dives, but added that their proposal did not mention the cave.
Shareef previously told the BBC that amateur scuba divers are only allowed to dive to a depth of 30m, and it is unclear why the Italians entered a cave that was nearly twice as deep.
The Maldivian rescue diver who died during the search for the bodies has also been identified as Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahdy.
Rescuer dies in the Maldives during search for bodies of Italian divers16.05.26, 18:03 • 10806 views
A spokesperson for the Maldivian government told the BBC that Mahdy was part of a group of eight rescue divers who were attempting to locate the bodies on Saturday.
"Eight rescue divers dove into the water today. When they resurfaced, they realized that Mr. Mahdy had not come up," Shareef previously told the BBC.
The other divers immediately dove back into the water and found Mahdy unconscious.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the accident.
