Maldivian authorities have said they are investigating multiple possibilities for the deaths of five Italian divers in a deep-water cave last week, including whether they descended far deeper than expected.

The group that entered the cave on Thursday was led by Monica Montefalcone, 51, a University of Genoa professor and marine ecologist who was a regular diver in Maldivian waters in the Indian Ocean.

Her daughter was among the four researchers who died. The body of an instructor is the only one so far recovered, from a depth of 60 metres.

It is the deadliest single incident in the country's diving history.

Mohamed Hussain Shareef, chief spokesperson at the Maldives president’s office, said the government had given the group the necessary permit to research soft corals in the Devana Kandu site.

"What we didn't know was that it was cave diving," Shareef said. "Because, as divers will tell you and appreciate, it's a very different discipline with its own sets of challenges and risks involved, and particularly at that depth, there are any number of things that could have gone wrong."

Expert divers from Finland spotted the four remaining bodies on Monday inside the cave's third and last chamber, "pretty much together," Shareef said. The plan is to recover two of the bodies on Tuesday and the other two on Wednesday, he said.

The group of Italians who entered the caves on Thursday included Montefalcone's daughter Giorgia Sommacal, biologist Federico Gualtieri, and researcher Muriel Oddenino.

Diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, whose body was recovered, had lived in the Maldives for seven years. (Reuters)


Edited by Aaron Tam