Finnish divers recover remaining 2 bodies of Italians from underwater cave in Maldives

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MALE, Maldives (AP) — Divers on Wednesday recovered the last two bodies of the four Italians who died deep inside an underwater cave in the Maldives last week.

The Italian divers had been exploring the cave in Vaavu Atoll last Thursday when they disappeared. The body of their Italian diving instructor was recovered outside the cave, and the Finnish recovery divers brought the bodies of two of the divers to the surface Tuesday.

Presidential spokesperson Mohameed Hussain Shareef said the last two bodies were recovered by three Finnish divers supported by the Maldives coastguard and police. He said they would be taken to a morgue to be identified.

“After that we will coordinate with the Italian government and start the procedure to repatriate the bodies,” he said. He thanked the Finnish divers, praising them for them for their professionalism and leadership.

The four bodies had been located Monday at a depth of around 60 meters (200 feet), twice the legal depth for recreational diving in the island nation. The search had been temporarily suspended after a local military diver died during a perilous retrieval attempt.

The Maldives government said the recovery divers spotted the bodies in the cave’s innermost area. Government spokesperson Ahmed Shaam said the four bodies were found “pretty much together.”

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

While the Italian 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.

He described the conditions deep in the cave as “challenging” with difficult terrain, strong currents and poor visibility.

He said an alert had also been issued due to bad weather, 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 rescue team used 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 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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Francis reported from Colombo, Sri Lanka.