{"id":679046,"date":"2026-05-18T17:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679046\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:41:10","slug":"maldives-divers-italian-divers-bodies-found-in-sea-cave-italys-foreign-ministry-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679046\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldives divers: Italian divers bodies found in sea cave, Italy&#8217;s Foreign Ministry says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/9news.com.au\/italy\" title=\"Italy\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Italy<\/a>&#8216;s Foreign Ministry says rescuers have located the bodies of four Italian divers believed to be deep inside an underwater cave in a Maldive atoll.<\/p>\n<p>Five Italian divers are believed to have died while exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 metres in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy&#8217;s Foreign Ministry. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 metres.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/942faa5b-df85-40ee-8d36-9a4ca4dff5e7.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>This image released by the Maldives President&#8217;s Media Division, shows divers preparing to search for the four missing Italian divers near Alimathaa Island, Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, Saturday, May 15, 2026. (Maldives President&#8217;s Media Division via AP) (Maldives Presidents Media Div)<\/p>\n<p>\nThe body of one Italian \u2014 a diving instructor \u2014 was found earlier outside the cave.\n<\/p>\n<p>Three Finnish divers had arrived in the Maldives yesterday to draw up a fresh plan in the search for the bodies of the other four, who were believed to be inside the cave system.\n<\/p>\n<p>Maldives presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef said the search was suspended after Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defence Force, died of underwater decompression sickness after being transferred to a hospital in the capital on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n<p>Shareef said yesterday that three Finnish divers, experts in deep and cave diving, had arrived in the archipelago nation and joined the Maldives coastguard in a meeting aimed at mapping a new search strategy.\n<\/p>\n<p>Rough weather has repeatedly hampered rescue efforts.\n<\/p>\n<p>Initial teams had already dived to identify and mark the entrance to the cave system where the Italians disappeared. The cause of the deaths remains under investigation.\n<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy&#8216;s Foreign Ministry says rescuers have located the bodies of four Italian divers believed to be deep inside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-679046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}