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In brief
- The bodies of four Italian divers have been found in the Maldives following a days-long search.
- A rescue diver also died over the weekend while searching for the bodies.
Italian officials have confirmed that the bodies of four divers from Italy have been discovered within a submerged cave in the Maldives.
Search efforts resumed on Monday after being halted due to the tragic loss of a local military diver, who perished while attempting to access the cave during a previous rescue operation.
Earlier, the remains of an Italian diving instructor were found outside the cave entrance.
According to the Italian Foreign Ministry, the divers reportedly lost their lives while exploring a cave located at a depth of approximately 50 meters in Vaavu Atoll last Thursday.
It should be noted that the Maldives enforces a recreational diving depth limit of 30 meters.
On Saturday, the Maldives suspended the operating licence of a luxury vessel from which the Italians had been diving from.
The University of Genoa said the victims included a marine biology professor, her daughter and two young researchers.
The local government is investigating why the group went below the officially permitted depth of 30m.
The incident is the deadliest diving disaster to have occurred in the Maldives.
Diving and water sport-related accidents are relatively rare in the South Asian nation, although several fatal incidents have been reported in recent years.
The low-lying Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 800km across the equator in the Indian Ocean, is a luxury holiday destination popular with divers, who often stay at secluded resorts or on liveaboard dive boats.
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