Bodies of four missing Italian divers found in Maldives
DAN Europe said a team of Finnish divers spent three hours carrying out the operation, during which they also collected the crucial information needed to prepare for recovering the bodies.
A painstaking search in the Maldives has ended in tragedy, with a specialist team finding the bodies of four missing Italian scuba divers who were killed in an underwater cave accident, according to Maldives officials and the DAN Europe divers’ network.
DAN Europe said a team of Finnish divers spent three hours carrying out the operation, during which they also collected the crucial information needed to prepare for recovering the bodies.
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“This marks an important milestone in an operation that remains technically demanding, emotionally challenging, and operationally complex,” the organisation said in a statement.
The Finnish team reached the Maldives on Sunday, days after the accident in Vaavu Atoll, where the Italian divers had been exploring caves at a depth of 50 metres on Thursday.
The body of a fifth Italian diver had already been recovered on Friday from inside a cave structure at a depth of about 60 metres, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) said last week. Authorities said at the time they believed the remaining divers would also be found in the cave, which stretches about 200 feet.
The search operation suffered a further setback on Saturday when an MNDF diver involved in the effort died from decompression illness. That death led authorities to temporarily halt the recovery mission, which has unfolded in rough weather and difficult sea conditions.
