Last bodies of Italian divers recovered in Maldives cave

Divers have recovered the last two bodies of the Italian divers who died deep inside an underwater cave in the Maldives last week.

Presidential spokesperson Mohameed Hussain Shareef said the last two bodies were recovered by three Finnish divers on Wednesday, local time, supported by the Maldives coastguard and police.

Mr Shareef said they would be taken to a morgue to be identified.

"After that we will coordinate with the Italian government and start the procedure to repatriate the bodies," he said.

He thanked the Finnish divers, praising them for their professionalism and leadership.

The Italian divers had been exploring the cave in Vaavu Atoll last Thursday when they disappeared.

The Finnish divers already recovered the bodies of two of the Italian divers on Tuesday.

The four bodies had been located Monday at a depth of around 60 metres, twice the legal depth for recreational diving in the island nation, in the cave's innermost area.

Government spokesperson Ahmed Shaam said the four bodies were found "pretty much together".

The body of their Italian diving instructor was recovered outside the cave on Thursday.

While the Italian divers had a permit, authorities didn't know from their proposal the exact location of the cave they were exploring, and at least two of the dead were not on the list of researchers that had been submitted, "so we didn't know they were part of the expedition," Mr Shareef said.

He described the conditions deep in the cave as "challenging" with difficult terrain, strong currents and poor visibility.

He said an alert had also been issued due to bad weather, and investigators must determine whether the divers took adequate precautions.

The Divers' Alert Network Europe, which deployed the Finnish divers, described them as technical and cave divers with experience in search and recovery missions, including operations in "deep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios".

The rescue team used closed-circuit re-breathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, allowing for "significantly longer dives," the organisation said.

The search had been temporarily suspended after a local military diver died during a perilous retrieval attempt.

The cause of death of the Maldivian military diver is still under investigation, but colleagues have suggested he may have died from nitrogen narcosis or decompression at depth.