MALE, Maldives: Finnish divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two of the four remaining Italians who died deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll in the Maldives, an official said.
The bodies were located on Monday, when searches resumed after being suspended following the death of a local military diver during a perilous mission to try to reach them.
Five Italian divers went missing on Thursday, with one of the bodies recovered earlier. The plan is to recover the remaining two bodies on Wednesday.
The announcement that two bodies were recovered on Tuesday was made by presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef.
Maldives government spokesman Ahmed Shaam had earlier said that the three Finnish divers would retrieve the bodies, which were lying at a depth of around 60 meters (200 feet). The legal depth for recreational diving in the Maldives is 30 meters (nearly 100 feet).
The government of the Indian Ocean island nation on Monday said that the bodies were spotted in the innermost part of the cave by the three Finnish diving experts, supported by the Maldives police and the military.
“As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave, but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part,” Shaam said.
He said that the four bodies were found “pretty much together.”
The Divers’ Alert Network Europe, which deployed the three Finnish divers, said on its website that they are technical and cave divers with international experience in search and recovery missions, including operations in “deep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios.”
The team used advanced technical systems, including closed-circuit rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, allowing for “significantly longer dives,” the organization said.
The body of a fifth Italian — a diving instructor — was found earlier outside the cave on the day they were reported missing. The five were exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 meters (160 feet) in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry.
Initial teams had already dived to identify and mark the entrance to the cave system where the Italians disappeared.