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.
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.
This tragedy is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the tiny Indian Ocean nation, which is a popular tourist destination due to its string of coral islands.
Further dives [are] to be carried out in the coming days to recover the bodies, said Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesperson, in a message to the BBC.
Two of the bodies would be recovered on Tuesday and the remaining two the following day, he added.
Italy's foreign ministry reported that the four bodies were located in the cave's third section — the furthest from the entrance — with additional dives necessary to recover them.
The first victim's body was found near the cave's entrance shortly after the accident.
Among the deceased were Prof Monica Montefalcone and research fellow Muriel Oddenino from the University of Genoa, who were in the Maldives studying climate change impacts on biodiversity. Tragically, Montefalcone's daughter Giorgia Sommacal, a student at the university, and Federico Gualtieri, a recent graduate, were also part of the diving group.
The fifth victim was diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti. His body was the first to be recovered.
The group entered the water at Vaavu Atoll on Thursday morning but were reported missing when they failed to resurface. Police indicated that rough weather in the area prompted warnings for passenger boats and fishermen around the time of the diving incident.
Authorities highlighted that while the team had a permit for their coral study, details related to the cave diving were not included in their proposal.
The dive was carried out 'in a personal capacity', and not part of the research, the University of Genoa stated, expressing profound grieving for the loss of the divers and their families.
The Maldivian rescue diver, Staff Sgt Mohamed Mahdhee, who tragically died during the search operation, had been attempting to locate the bodies when he became unresponsive in the water.
An ongoing investigation aims to uncover the circumstances surrounding this tragic event.
