COLOMBO/ROME (AP/Reuters): Italy’s Foreign Ministry said Monday rescuers have located the bodies of four Italian divers believed to be deep inside an underwater cave in a Maldive atoll.
The searches had resumed on Monday after being suspended following the death of a local military diver during a perilous mission to try to reach them.
Five Italian divers are believed to have died while exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 meters (160 feet) in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 meters.
The body of one Italian — a diving instructor — was found earlier outside the cave.
Three Finnish cave divers joined efforts to try to find and recover the bodies of four Italian scuba divers who died in an accident in underwater caves, the DAN Europe divers’ network said.
The team arrived on Sunday, DAN Europe said in a statement, after the incident in the Vaavu Atoll, where the Italian divers had been exploring caves at a depth of 50 meters (165 feet) on Thursday.
The body of one of the Italian divers was recovered on Friday, the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) said in a statement on Friday.
“The body was recovered from about 60 meters deep from inside a cave structure. It is assumed that the rest of the divers would also be inside this cave which is about 200 feet in length,” the statement said.
The Finnish divers — Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Grönqvist — will work with the MNDF and other officials.
A MNDF diver taking part in the search, Sergeant-major Mohamed Mahudhee, died on Saturday from decompression illness, prompting the MNDF to temporarily suspend the recovery effort which has been taking place in rough weather and sea conditions.
