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Italy’s foreign ministry said Monday that the bodies of four Italians who drowned during a diving accident in the Maldives had been located.
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The search had resumed on Monday after being suspended following the death of a local military diver during a perilous mission to try to reach them.
Five Italian divers are believed to have died while exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 metres in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry.
The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 metres.
The body of one Italian, a diving instructor, was found earlier outside the cave.
Three Finnish divers had arrived in the Maldives Sunday to draw up a fresh plan in the search for the bodies of the other four, who were believed to be inside the cave system.
Maldives presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef said the search was suspended after Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defence Force, died of underwater decompression sickness after being transferred to a hospital in the capital Malé on Saturday.
Shareef said on Sunday that three Finnish divers, experts in deep and cave diving, have arrived in the archipelago nation and joined the Maldives coastguard in a meeting aimed at mapping a new search strategy.
Rough weather has repeatedly hampered rescue efforts.
Initial teams had already dived to identify and mark the entrance to the cave system where the Italians disappeared. The cause of the deaths remains under investigation.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
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