Rome prosecutors have opened an investigation after five Italians died while scuba-diving in the Maldives on Thursday, sources said on Friday.
The victims have been named as Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, Muriel Oddenino, Federico Gualtieri, and Gianluca Benedetti.
The University of Genoa said four of the victims were linked to it.
Montefalcone was an ecology professor with it, Sommacal was one of its biomedical engineering students, Oddenino was a researcher with its Earth, environment and life science department, and Benedetti had recently completed a masters degree in marine biology and ecology.
Benedetti, who came from a town near Padua, was a diving instructor and boat captain.
The Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) said it was searching for the bodies of four of the victims in a cave at a depth of 60 metres where the corpse of one was recovered on Thursday.
It said the recovery operation was “high risk” and involved specialist scuba divers and boats with aerial support.
It said adverse weather conditions, with strong winds blowing in the area, complicated the situation.
A weather alert for boats in the area that was in force at the time of the disaster continued on Friday.
However, one of the members of the party who was on the boat, the Duke of York, that the five dived from told ANSA on Friday that weather at the time of the incident was fine, saying “the sea was not rough and visibility was excellent.
“We have no idea what could have happened in those caves,” they added.
“It’s too early to speculate. Four bodies still need to be recovered. We’re fine, but in shock”.
The Italian foreign ministry said Damiano Francovigh, its ambassador to Sri Lanka who also has responsibility for the Maldives, has flown in to meet Coast Guard officials in the capital Malé.
“Rescue vessels of the Maldivian Coast Guard have reached the site of the incident in which five Italian divers lost their lives,” the ministry said.
“On board are divers from the Coast Guard and the police, as well as an Italian expert diver who has already cooperated with the authorities.
“At present, weather conditions may prevent the commencement of recovery operations; however, an initial dive aimed at exploring the access points of the cave is expected to be carried out, pending an improvement in weather conditions”.
A source in Malé said the body recovered on Thursday has been identified as that of Benedetti, contradicting a report that it was Montefalcone’s.
Francovigh told SkyTg24 that “at the moment it is difficult to make hypotheses about the causes.
“Once the bodies have been recovered, and so also the equipment containing all the various details – such as the watches – it will be possible to formulate hypotheses with some more concrete clues,” he added.
An incorrect mix of gases in the divers’ tanks or human error may have been behind the tragedy, Gerardo Bosco, full professor of Sports Physiology at the University of Chieti and director of the Master’s Program in Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, told ANSA.
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