Bodies of four divers who drowned in Maldives diving accident found, Italy says

Published on 18/05/2026 - 13:29 GMT+2

Italy's overseas ministry said Monday that the bodies of 4 Italians who drowned during a diving mishap successful the Maldives had been located.

The hunt had resumed connected Monday aft being suspended pursuing the decease of a section subject diver during a perilous ngo to effort to scope them.

Five Italian divers are believed to person died portion exploring a cave astatine a extent of astir 50 metres successful Vaavu Atoll connected Thursday, according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry.

The recreational diving bounds successful the Maldives is 30 metres.

The assemblage of 1 Italian, a diving instructor, was recovered earlier extracurricular the cave.

Three Finnish divers had arrived successful the Maldives Sunday to gully up a caller program successful the hunt for the bodies of the different four, who were believed to beryllium wrong the cave system.

Maldives statesmanlike spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef said the hunt was suspended aft Mohamed Mahudhee, a subordinate of the Maldivian National Defence Force, died of underwater decompression sickness aft being transferred to a infirmary successful the superior Malé connected Saturday.

Shareef said connected Sunday that 3 Finnish divers, experts successful heavy and cave diving, person arrived successful the archipelago federation and joined the Maldives coastguard successful a gathering aimed astatine mapping a caller hunt strategy.

Rough upwind has repeatedly hampered rescue efforts.

Initial teams had already dived to place and people the entranceway to the cave strategy wherever the Italians disappeared. The origin of the deaths remains nether investigation.

Additional sources • AP, AFP