By SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 08:35 BST, 20 May 2026 | Updated: 08:36 BST, 20 May 2026
The bodies of the last two of five Italian divers who perished while diving in a deep underwater cave in the Maldives have been recovered.Giorgia Sommacal and Muriel Oddenino were part of a group of divers who entered a deep-water cave in the Vaavu Atoll last week.A team of expert divers from Finland found their bodies today, nearly a week after the tragedy. 'The first one has already been lifted onto a support boat. The second is being brought up by a diver who is observing the decompression stops,' an Italian foreign ministry source said. The group that entered the cave was led by Monica Montefalcone, 51, a University of Genoa professor and marine ecologist who was a regular diver in Maldivian waters in the Indian Ocean, and also included her daughter, Giorgia. Pictured: A Finnish diver conducting a search and recovery operation for the bodies of four Italian tourists in the waters of Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, 19 May 2026It comes after the bodies of Montefalcone and university researcher Federico Gualtieri were recovered on Tuesday.Boat captain and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was the first body to be recovered last week. Maldivian authorities are probing multiple possible factors behind the accident – the deadliest single incident in the country's diving history – including whether the divers descended far deeper than expected.
