First images from inside Maldives death cave: Rescue team release photographs showing where five Italian divers lost their lives

The first photographs from inside the doomed Maldives cave system where five Italian divers died have been released by the team that recovered the bodies.

The group, all from Italy, set out to explore the caves of Vaavu Atoll last Thursday but never surfaced again.

Images published by Dan Europe show narrow underwater passages where the divers’ bodies were found, and the light quickly fades to almost total darkness.

Clouds of disturbed coral sediment can also be seen suspended in the water, demonstrating how visibility can quickly disappear in cramped tunnels.

Sharing the photos on Instagram, the diving organization said: ‘Natural light is still filtering through the entrance before the system is plunged into darkness.’

The bodies of 52-year-old Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31, were found at a depth of about 50 meters, near the mouth of the third and final chamber of the caves in Vaavu Atoll.

The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was found near the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave on the day the divers disappeared.

Mystery has clouded the tragedy, dubbed the island nation’s worst diving incident, as investigators try to determine how the group of experienced scuba divers met their fate.

Expert divers who recovered the bodies this week suggested the group may have entered the wrong tunnel as they emerged from the underwater cave.

Footage released by DAN Europe shows eerie underwater passages where visibility was lost as rescuers searched for the group trapped more than 60 meters below the surface

Sharing the photos on Instagram, the diving organization said: ‘Natural light is still filtering through the entrance before the system descends into darkness.’

The bodies of Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31, were found on Monday at a depth of about 50 meters near the mouth of the third and last chamber of the caves in Vaavu Atoll.

The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was found near the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave on the day the divers disappeared.

Footage published by Dan Europe shows narrow underwater passages where divers’ bodies were found; light quickly turns into almost complete darkness

Pro-divers working for Dan Europe found the Italians in a dead-end corridor within the cave complex, Italy’s daily newspaper La Repubblica reported.

“There was no way out of here,” said the company’s CEO, Laura Marroni, as quoted by La Repubblica.

The five-person group includes Monica Montefalcone, a marine biology professor with many years of experience; daughter Giorgia Sommacal; two young researchers, Federico Gualtieri and Muriel Oddenino; and their Maldives-based guide Benedetti.

Finnish divers found that the cave near Alimatha began with the first large, very bright cave with a sandy bottom, Marroni told the newspaper.

At the end of this room is a corridor with very little light, but ‘visibility was excellent when artificial lighting was used,’ he said.

The corridor is almost 30 meters long and 3 meters wide and leads to a second chamber of the cave, a large, circular space with no natural light.

There is a sand bank between the corridor and the second room.

It’s easy to get over the sandbar and into the second room, but when you turn around to leave again, the shore appears almost like a wall, hiding the corridor, La Repubblica reported.

To the left of the beach is another corridor – only a few dozen meters long.

Marroni told the newspaper: ‘The divers’ bodies were found inside as if they had mistaken them for the correct body.

If they had used that corridor by mistake, ‘it would have been very difficult for them to return, especially with the limited air supply,’ Marroni said.

The divers were using standard tanks, which meant they had little time to visit the second cave at that depth, he said.

The deceased, 51-year-old Monica Montefalcone, was a respected marine biologist, television personality and professor of Tropical Marine Ecology and Underwater Science at the University of Genoa.

“We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less,” Marroni added.

‘It’s terrifying to realize you’ve gone the wrong way and perhaps have very little air after driving back and forth. “Then you breathe rapidly and the air supply decreases,” he said.

The Finnish team consisted of three divers: one was in charge of recovering the bodies, the second was in charge of operational safety support, and the third was in charge of documenting the rescue and dive site.

Marroni said the divers were ‘highly trained’ and that they ‘did an extensive exploration with us and developed a conservative dive plan considering no one knew the cave well’.

‘This type of operation always requires great responsibility, emotional burden and a strong desire to return the bodies to their families,’ he said.

The team recovered the bodies on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is breaking news, more will follow.