Rescue teams in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives searched for a second day on Friday for the bodies of four missing Italians following the country’s deadliest diving accident, officials said.
Italy’s foreign ministry said on Thursday night that five citizens had died while diving, with Maldivian authorities recovering one body.
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu said searching for the remaining four Italians “remains our highest priority”.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased Italian, the missing four Italians and everyone affected,” Muizzu said in a statement on social media.
Maldives Minister of Tourism Mohamed Ameen said coastguard officers and security forces were scouring remote seas around a deep cave where the divers were reported missing on Thursday afternoon.
A dive by rescuers ended Friday without any trace of the missing Italians.
Government spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said the authorities had marked out the search area and would resume when weather improves.
He said the victims were believed to be trapped inside a cave at a depth of about 60 metres (196 feet).
“The weather is not ideal for diving, and we are facing very rough seas. We have deployed our largest Coast Guard vessel to the area, and Italian diplomats are also on site,” Shareef told AFP.
– ‘Below the permitted depth’ –
He said tourists were not supposed to dive below 30 metres.
“There will be a separate investigation into how these divers went below the permitted depth, but our focus right now is on the search and rescue,” Shareef said.
The University of Genoa said the victims included a marine biology professor, her daughter, and two young researchers.
They were diving in Vaavu Atoll, about a 90-minute speedboat ride from the capital, Male.
Police said the weather was rough in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday when they vanished, and that there was a warning for passenger boats and fishermen.
The low-lying Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 800 kilometres (500 miles) 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.
The Italian diver whose body was recovered on Thursday has not been publicly identified.
The Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF), which is coordinating the operation, said the body was found in a cave at a depth of 60 metres.
The Italians were on a liveaboard dive boat, and the alarm was raised when they failed to return as scheduled, police said.
Diving and water-sport-related accidents are relatively rare in the South Asian nation, although several fatal incidents have been reported in recent years.
Local media reports said at least 112 tourists had died in marine-related incidents in the archipelago over the past six years, including 42 in diving or snorkelling accidents.
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