First pictures revealed of inside ‘shark cave’ where five divers tragically drowned
First images from inside the Maldives cave where five people died during a scuba driving accident have been released.
Five people from Italy were exploring an underwater cave, a massive 160ft below the surface, when they sadly lost their lives in the tragedy last week, in what is thought to be the country's deadliest single diving accident.
The group from Italy were killed following an underwater cave expedition at a popular diving spot near Vaavu Atoll last Thursday (14 May), with their instructor also losing his life.
A woman who attempted to retrieve the bodies also regrettably lost her life during the dive into the area which has since been described as a 'shark cave'.
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"The divers are believed to have died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft)," the foreign ministry in Rome has said.
Expert divers, working for DAN Europe, were eventually able to recover the bodies alongside assistance from the Maldives coastguard and police, and they also suggested a potential reason why the divers became stuck and sadly lost their lives.
They suggest that the divers may have taken a wrong turn on their way out, leading them down a tunnel which had a dead-end.
It is certainly easy to see how the divers may have lost their way in the underwater cavern, with the images published from DAN Europe highlighting the dark conditions the divers would have been dealing with.
Sharing the pictures on Instagram, the diving organisation said: "Natural light still filters through the entrance before the system descends into darkness."
More to follow.
James Moorhouse