Bodies of four missing Maldives divers have been found

The bodies of four missing divers who disappeared during a scuba expedition in the Maldives have now been found, Italy's foreign ministry has said.

Five divers, all from Italy, dove 50m (165ft) to explore deep-sea caves that make up the Vaavu Atoll on Thursday (14 May).

Four members had been part of a University of Genoa team, including Monica Montefalcone, a Professor of Ecology, and her student daughter, Giorgia Sommacal. The other two were researchers at the facility, fellow Muriel Oddenino, and marine biology graduate Federico Gualtieri.

The group were reported missing by the crew of the diving vessel some time after they dove down, having failed to resurface.

The first body - that of boat operations manager and diving instructor, Gianluca Benedetti - was recovered from a cave approximately 60m underwater by recovery teams on Thursday.

The four missing bodies have now been found (Mohamed Afrah / AFP via Getty Images)

Previous reports heard that the other four divers were believed to be in the same cave.

The mission to recover their bodies was temporarily suspended following the death of a military diver over the weekend.

Mohamed Mahudhee, a Staff Sergeant, died of decompression sickness after being transferred to a hospital in the capital following a search.

An official statement shared by a representative of the Maldives President, Mohamed Muizzu, confirmed: "The death of a diver of the Maldives National Defence Force while diving in search of missing tourists is a matter of deep sorrow for me and for every Maldivian citizen.

"This is heartbreaking news. The death goes to show the difficulty of the mission."

The search resumed following the arrival of a team of highly trained Finnish and Maldivian divers, supposedly experts in deep and cave diving, to the area.

Benedetti's body was the first to be found (Instagram/@albatrostopboat)

They found the remaining four bodies inside one of the area's many caves.

Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesperson, previously told the BBC: "Further dives [are] to be carried out in the coming days to recover the bodies."

An Instagram statement released by the University of Genoa also read: "The University of Genoa expresses its deepest condolences for the sudden and tragic demise of Monica Montefalcone, associate professor of Ecology at the Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences – DISTAV, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, a student of Biomedical Engineering at UniGe, Muriel Oddenino, research assistant at DISTAV, and Federico Gualtieri, recent master’s graduate from UniGe in Biology and Marine Ecology.

Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri's bodies have now been found (Facebook)

"To the families, to the colleagues, to the students and students who have shared their human and professional journey, the closeness of the entire university community goes."