May 15 (UPI) — Bad weather was hampering a major operation Friday in the Maldives to recover the bodies of five Italians killed in a scuba diving incident while exploring underwater caves at a depth of more than 160 feet in the Vaavu Atoll area of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said in a news release that Maldivian Coast Guard vessels had arrived at the scene, about 50 miles south of the capital, Male, with dive rescue teams on board who were being assisted by an expert Italian diver, and were preparing to make a reconnaissance dive.

“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,” said the ministry.

It added that the Italian Ambassador to Sri Lanka had arrived in Male to meet coast guard officials, who it said were working to piece together what happened, and that staff at the embassy were in contact with the victims’ families to “provide all necessary consular assistance.”

The BBC reported that the Maldives military had found one body in a cave 200 feet down and that the four others were also thought to be in the same location.

Four of the deceased were faculty and students from the University of Genoa and the fifth person was the dive boat manager and diving instructor for the expedition, also an Italian national.

The boat crew alerted authorities after the team failed to return to the surface.

In a post on X, the university said it extended its “deepest condolences for the sudden and tragic passing” of ecology faculty professor Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, who was also a student at Genoa U, research fellow Muriel Oddenino and marine biology graduate Federico Gualtieri.

Italian University and Research Minister Anna Maria Bernini said she was deeply shocked by the incident.

“The tragedy that has struck the University of Genoa deeply shakes the entire Italian academic community. There is pain for which words are not enough. In this moment so dramatic, I extend my most sincere thoughts and my closeness to the families, to the Rector, to colleagues, to students, and to the entire Genoese university community, hit by a loss that leaves us dismayed,” she wrote in a post on X.

Dives below a depth of 130 feet are normally advised for expert divers only, due to the need for additional oxygen tanks and rebreathers, and carries risks from gas narcosis, the bends, lung compression and running out of air due to increased consumption at greater depths.

Diving in underwater caves carries far greater risk than diving in open water.

Numerous deaths occur among both recreational and professional divers every year.

In December, a British woman was killed in a diving accident off the Maldivian island of Ellaidhoo, about 50 miles away from Vaavu. Opening and adjourning the inquest in January, the coroner for Derby described her as “an experienced diver.”

A Japanese national died in an accident while diving on Lhaviyani Atoll in the northern Maldives in 2024.

In 2018, two divers, both former Thai Navy SEALs, were killed attempting to rescue a group of schoolboys trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand.