Maldives National Defense Force military divers prepare to enter the water on Saturday amid a search for four Italian divers missing off the Vaavu Atoll. Staff Sergeant Mohammed Mahdi (2-L) was killed later the same day after sustaining decompression injuries, bringing the total death toll in the incident to six. Photo by Maldives President's Media Division/EPA
May 18 (UPI) -- Maldivian authorities said Monday the bodies of four Italians killed while diving in underwater caves in the Vaavu Atoll area of the Indian Ocean archipelago had been found and an attempt to recover them would be made in the coming days.
The international operation involving the coast guard and expert Finnish and Maldivian dive teams discovered the Italian nationals, faculty and students from the University of Genoa on a research expedition, in a cave at a depth of more than 200 feet.
Maldivian government spokesperson Mohamed Hossain Shareef said three Finnish divers from the Divers Alert Network, a global scuba safety group, joined a fourth expert and the local coastguard at the scene to figure out how best to proceed.
Specialist equipment provided by the United Kingdom and Australia was being used to aid in the task of finding and recovering the divers' remains from what was described as a labyrinthine cave system.
