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.
It is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the tiny Indian Ocean nation, a popular tourist destination because of its string of coral islands.
“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.
Two of the Italian divers – Prof Monica Montefalcone and research fellow Muriel Oddenino from the University of Genoa – were in the Maldives looking at the impact of climate change on biodiversity.
