Spokesperson for Indian Ocean island nation says they will try to recover explorers in next couple of days

Two boats at sea with people onboard.
Maldives marine police boats during a search operation in Vaavu Atoll on Saturday, Photograph: Sophia Nasif/EPA

Rescuers have located the bodies of four Italian divers deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll in the Maldives, four days after they were reported missing.

Searches had resumed after being suspended following the death of a local military diver during a perilous mission to try to reach them.

The government of the Indian Ocean island nation confirmed on Monday the bodies were spotted in the innermost part of the cave by three Finnish diving experts, supported by the Maldives police and the military.

“As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part,” said Ahmed Shaam, a Maldives government spokesperson.

He said the four were found “pretty much together”.

“The plan is they will try and recover two bodies tomorrow and possibly the other two the following day,” Shaam said in a voice clip sent to the media.

The body of a fifth Italian, a diving instructor, was found earlier outside the cave. The five were exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 metres (160ft) in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s foreign ministry. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 metres.

The Maldives presidential spokesperson, Mohamed Hussain Shareef, 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.”

Shareef said they have suspended the operation of the boat used by the divers “because the regulations here say that if you want to take divers on expeditions, you need a dive school permit, which they didn’t have, sadly”.

The boat operator of the MV Duke of York, Abdul Muhsin Moosa, said the vessel did have permission for recreational depth of up to 30 metres.

“We are sharing these details with the government, as well,” he said, adding that the divers were briefed on arrival at the boat about Maldives’ recreational diving limits and that they are not allowed to go beyond 30 metres.

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

Monica Montefalcone

Maldives diver dies in operation to recover bodies of Italians from cave

Three Finnish divers, experts in deep and cave diving, arrived in the Maldives on Sunday.

Shareef said earlier that the search was suspended after Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldives National Defence Force, died of underwater decompression sickness after being transferred to a hospital in the capital on Saturday.

Rough weather has repeatedly hampered rescue efforts.

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.