The bodies of the remaining four Italians who went missing while scuba diving in the Maldives last week have been located in a deep underwater cave, the Maldives National Defense Force said on Monday.
Authorities had recovered one body on Thursday, the day the group of five researchers went missing.
The four bodies were “located inside the Vaavu Atoll cave on a joint search and recovery operation,” the Maldives agency said in a statement posted on X. A team of experts sent by the Italian government had joined the mission.
Three highly-trained specialist cave divers found the bodies during a three-hour rescue dive on Monday morning, according to the Divers Alert Network (DAN), an international diving safety group involved in the rescue.
The coming days will be “dedicated to the highly delicate recovery procedures,” the agency said.
The discovery marked the end of a search by an international consortium of rescuers who combed the deepwater formations for signs of the missing divers. One member of the search team — Mohamed Mahdhee, a veteran diver with the Maldives National Defense Force — died on Saturday from decompression illness.
The missing divers were part of an expedition of dozens of Italians in the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean known for its crystal clear waters and dive sites. They included Monica Montefalcone, a marine ecologist at the University of Genoa; her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, a biomedical engineering student at the same university; Muriel Oddenino, a research fellow; Federico Gualtieri, a former student of the ecologist; and Gianluca Benedetti, a diving instructor.
The dive on Thursday, to explore deepwater reefs and caves, required specialty equipment and was considered “hazardous,” according to the Maldives Defense Force. At least 20 other Italians on the expedition did not go on the dive and were unharmed.
Diving is a backbone of the Maldivian economy, one of the most tourism-dependent in the world. The country has been internationally recognized for its pristine dive sites and its longstanding infrastructure, with a wealth of senior guides and well-established dive schools.
The Italian divers were not tourists, but researchers who had been conducting work in the area over several years, said Mohamed Hussain Shareef, spokesman for the Maldivian government.
The missing divers failed to surface after descending to explore a network of caves, which were at a depth of around 50 meters, or 164 feet. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 meters, or around 98 feet. Anything deeper requires specialized equipment.
The Maldives coast guard received a distress call at around noon on Thursday. One body was discovered that evening at around 196 feet — far deeper than the group had planned to go.
Maldivian authorities suspended search operations after Mr. Mahdhee’s death. A group of Finnish divers arrived over the weekend to provide expert advice and perform the deeper, more technical dives, Mr. Shareef said at the time. In addition to dive searches, the team was also using two remote-operated vehicles.
The Maldives police said it launched a criminal investigation into what had happened. In a statement, Maldivian authorities said they were looking into whether the trip had adhered to safety protocols, including weather alerts.
The four bodies will be recovered over the next few days in another series of dives, the Maldives National Defense Force said.
Maahil Mohamed contributed reporting from the Maldives.
