Bodies of 2 Italian divers are recovered from deep in a Maldives underwater cave

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MALE, Maldives (AP) — 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 last week, a spokesperson for the Indian Ocean nation said, while describing “very challenging” conditions like poor visibility and strong currents.

The bodies were located on Monday as searches resumed after a suspension following the death of a local military diver during a perilous retrieval attempt. The bodies were at a depth of around 60 meters (200 feet), twice as deep as the legal depth for recreational diving in the island nation.

Five Italian divers went missing on Thursday. The body of the Italian diving instructor was recovered earlier outside the cave. The two remaining bodies are expected to be recovered on Wednesday.

The Maldives government has said Finnish divers doing the recovery work spotted the bodies in the cave's innermost area. Government spokesperson Ahmed Shaam said the four bodies were found “pretty much together."

The five Italians had been exploring a cave in Vaavu Atoll. Initial teams had dived to identify and mark the entrance system where they disappeared.

The cave has been dived in the past by local experts and foreign divers, presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef told The Associated Press.

While the divers had a permit, authorities didn’t know from their proposal the exact location of the cave they were exploring, and at least two of the dead were not on the list of researchers that had been submitted, "so we didn’t know they were part of the expedition,” Shareef said.

“Actually a very challenging dive, you know," he added. “Number one, because of the depth, number two, because of actual terrain, because that specific channel has strong currents, strong downdrafts down toward, and the conditions down there, the visibility, for example, once you enter the cave would be almost zero.”

He said the weather was challenging, with an alert having been issued, and investigators must determine whether the divers took adequate precautions.

The Divers’ Alert Network Europe, which deployed the Finnish divers, described them as technical and cave divers with experience in search and recovery missions, including operations in “deep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios.”

The team is using 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.

Shareef said the Maldives has a strong reputation and infrastructure for safe diving and called the incident unfortunate and tragic, but noted the difference between this kind of technical diving and the recreational kind that many visitors enjoy.

The cause of death of the Maldivian military diver was still under investigation, but colleagues have suggested he may have died from nitrogen narcosis or decompression at depth.

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Ganguly reported from New Delhi.