Rescue divers locate bodies of all four missing tourists inside underwater cave

The bodies of all four Italian tourists who went missing during a diving expedition on Thursday have been successfully located, confirms the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF).

According to MNDF, the bodies of all four tourists were found inside the cave they went missing in during a recovery mission on Thursday led by international technical diving experts.

“We will be working on recovering the bodies in subsequent dives today,” said the MNDF.

The recovery mission is being conducted by the MNDF, police and a team of Finnish diving experts sent by the Italian government, as well as divers from two local diving companies.

The four were part of a group of five Italian tourists reported missing at around 01:45 pm Thursday after going on a scuba diving trip to an underwater cave system located near V. Alimatha.

The victims were identified as Monica Montefalcone, a marine biology professor connected to the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.

The body of Benedetti was found at around 06:13 pm Thursday, from 60 meters underwater, inside the cave.

The MNDF had continued to conduct recovery dives, before suspending the mission on Saturday, after Coast Guard’s Sergeant First Class Mohamed Mahudhy died during one of the dives.

He reportedly suffered decompression sickness, and was pronounced dead shortly after he was rushed to the ADK Hospital in Male’ City.

The operation resumed on Monday with a team of three Finnish technical diving experts, one of whom is a cave diving specialist.

The trio was sent to assist in the recovery missing by the Italian government.

The cave the tourists went missing in is located 50-60 meters underwater, far below the maximum depth of 30 meters allowed for recreational diving in the Maldives.

The tragedy marks the Maldives’ deadliest diving accident to date.