Maldives confirms recovery of Italian divers’ bodies in worst diving accident
Authorities have identified the four remaining victims of a scuba diving incident in Vaavu Atoll, bringing the total death toll to five. The tragedy, which also claimed the life of a local rescue officer, is being treated as the deadliest single diving accident in the nation’s history.
Maldivian authorities have confirmed the recovery of the bodies of four Italian divers who went missing during a scuba diving accident in Vaavu Atoll last week. The fifth member of the group, boat operations manager and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, had already been located following the incident on Thursday. The remaining bodies were found inside a 60-metre-deep cave by a joint team of highly trained Finnish and Maldivian divers.
The four Italian nationals were part of a University of Genoa research team, comprising Professor Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, and researchers Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri. The incident is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the Maldives, a popular tourist destination in the Indian Ocean known for its string of coral islands.
The search operation resulted in further casualties, with a Maldivian rescue diver, Staff Sgt Mohamed Mahdhee, dying while searching for the bodies. Mahdhee was part of a group of eight rescue divers who entered the water on Saturday. When they surfaced, they realised Mahdhee had not emerged; other divers immediately re-entered the water and found him unconscious.
According to Maldivian government spokesperson Mohamed Hossain Shareef, further dives are scheduled to be carried out in the coming days to recover the bodies. It is believed that the four bodies of the Italian group were located in the same underwater cave where the military found the first body on the day of the accident.
The exact cause of the initial accident that led to the divers going missing is not detailed in the source material, only that it was a scuba diving accident. The precise timeline of when the four bodies were located relative to the announcement is not specified beyond occurring last week.
