Five divers died and another military specialist on a rescue mission perished trying to locate the missing group down the murky Thinwana Kandu 'shark cave' in the Maldives18:28, 18 May 2026Chilling new images show the inside of a murky 'shark cave' where five divers mysteriously died - and a military hero lost his life trying to rescue them.‌The five Italian divers disappeared on a descent down Thinwana Kandu cave in the Maldives on May 14, with an initial search by local emergency services being called off the following day due to "extreme" weather conditions and poor visibility.‌Shortly after the group went missing, the body of the group's diving instructor, Gianluca Benedetti, was found floating at the mouth of the cave.‌The remaining four bodies were located 160ft inside the cave system yesterday following a recovery operation by a team of specialist Finnish divers.Images from inside the cave shows the divers relying on underwater torches to make their way through the dim, narrow, tunnels, with the site often referred to as 'shark cave' by locals due to a a belief the sea creatures use them as a resting place.‌READ MORE: Mystery of Maldives diving tragedy that killed six people as experts try to figure out what actually happenedREAD MORE: Bodies of four Italian tourists found after they vanished in Maldives during 160ft diveThe missing group - which included a university professor, her daughter, two marine researchers, and their diving instructor - arrived at the cave on a yacht on Thursday morning, where began a descent to perilous depths of around 180 to 200 feet.At 1.45pm local time, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) coastguard received an emergency alert after the divers failed to resurface. A yellow weather warning was in effect at the time, with rough seas and strong currents severely hampering the initial response.That same evening, search teams recovered the body of the group's diving instructor, Mr Benedetti, near the first chamber of the cave. The other four divers - Monica Montefalcone, Giorgia Sommacal, Muriel Oddenino, and Federico Gualtieri - remained missing.‌A "high-risk", specialised search operation involving divers, vessels, and air support was launched on the Friday, with the Maldives' President Mohamed Muizzu visiting the site to oversee the beginning of the mission.But search and recovery operations were officially suspended only a few hours later due to deteriorating sea conditions, poor visibility, and the extreme dangers posed to rescuers by the cave's depth.‌An eight-man military dive team successfully entered the two chambers of the massive cave system the next day, but found no further bodies.During the dive, the rescue team leader, Sgt Major Mohamed Mahudhee, fell unconscious underwater and was rushed to a hospital in Malé around 60 miles away.He was pronounced dead a short time later from a suspected decompression illness, and buried within hours with military honours. The MNDF again suspended its search in the aftermath.‌On Sunday, an elite team of three Finnish technical cave-diving specialists partially assembled by the Italian government arrived at the remote chain of islands to take over the recovery mission.Their search located the bodies of the four remaining Italian divers in the third segment of the cave system. They are yet to be recovered, with further dives planned this week.Article continues belowQuestions have since been raised over why the group ventured to such depths inside the cave with only limited recreational equipment. Deep-sea diver Marc Randazza said on X: "I’ve been diving for 30 years. Rescue and deep dive certified."These divers were effectively dead the moment they went in the water. At 150 feet, with recreational gear and without a special gas mix, you’re already dead."He added that there was “no possible way” the divers would have survived those depths “whether they panicked or not”, and that the dive plan "was never going to end with any of them alive."