The bodies of four Italian divers who went missing during a scuba diving accident in the Maldives last week have been located, officials have confirmed to the BBC.
The Italians were found inside a 60-metre-deep (197ft) cave in Vaavu Atoll by a joint team of highly trained Finnish and Maldivian divers, the officials said.
The body of a fifth Italian diver, a member of the group, had already been recovered shortly after Thursday’s accident.
A Maldivian rescue diver also died on Saturday while searching for the bodies of the group.
“Further dives [are] to be carried out in the coming days to recover the bodies,” Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesperson, said in a message to the BBC.
Two of the bodies would be recovered on Tuesday and the remaining two the following day, he said.
Italy’s foreign ministry said the four bodies were located in the cave’s third section – the furthest from the entrance – and that additional dives would be needed to recover them.
The body of the first Italian victim is believed to have been located near the entrance to the same cave on Thursday.
FacebookFour of the Italian divers were part of a University of Genoa team: Prof 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 were reported missing when they failed to resurface later on.
Police said the weather was rough in the area, about 100km (62 miles) south of the capital, Male, when the group went missing. A yellow warning was issued for passenger boats and fishermen.
Shareef said the group had permission for their research mission to study the coral, including deep dives, but added that there was no mention of the cave in their proposal.
In an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Serra newspaper, Shareef confirmed that Prof Montefalcone’s team did have a permit for their scientific work, valid until Sunday, which allowed them to descend to 50 metres.
The mouth of the cave is 47 metres below the surface.
The permit covered various atolls, including Vaavu, with the Duke of York named as the dive boat.
However, only three of those who died were listed as researchers. Neither the professor’s daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, nor the group instructor, Gianluca Benedetti, were mentioned.
The BBC has approached the University of Genoa for comment on the nature and parameters of the research mission. A spokesperson said they would respond “when there is information”.
Maldives governmentThe Maldivian rescue diver who died while searching for their bodies has also been named as Staff Sgt Mohamed Mahdhee.
Shareef told the BBC that Mahdhee was part of a group of eight rescue divers who were trying to locate the bodies on Saturday.
“Eight rescue divers went into the water today. When they surfaced, they realised Mr Mahdhee didn’t come up,” the Maldivian government spokesman said.
The other divers immediately went into the water again and they found Mahdhee was unconscious.
An investigation is ongoing to establish the cause of the accident.
