The Maldives National Defence Force, MNDF, says the joint search operation has located the bodies of the four Italian divers who vanished after they went cave diving off Vaavu Atoll last Thursday.
MNDF said that the recovery was made by the joint operation carried out by MNDF Coastguard, Maldives Police Service, and the cave-diving expert team arranged by the Italian government. It said that the bodies were found within the underwater cave.
It also said that further dives would be carried out in the coming days to recover the bodies.
Five divers who went to explore an underwater cave at a depth of 60 ft were reported missing last Thursday. The body of one of the divers was discovered on Thursday, and the other four remain missing as authorities suspect that they were stuck in the 200ft long cave.
On Saturday, a military diver from the Maldives National Defence Force, MNDF, lost his life while searching for the missing divers. Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahudhee was one of the most experienced divers in the MNDF ranks, and he was buried after a state funeral.
