Italy’s foreign ministry says rescuers have found 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 on Monday 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 country confirmed 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,” Maldives government spokesman Ahmed Shaam said.

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

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

The Divers’ Alert Network Europe, which sent the three Finnish divers, said on its website that they were technical and cave divers with international experience in search and recovery missions. They included operations in “deep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios”.

The team used advanced technical systems, including closed-circuit rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, allowing for “significantly longer dives,” the organisation explained.

The body of a fifth Italian – a diving instructor – was found earlier outside the cave.

Monica Montefalcone is among those believed to have died. Photo: AAP

The victims have been identified as Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, according to the Maldivian government.

Montefalcone and Oddenino were in the Maldives on an official scientific mission to monitor marine environments and study the effects of climate change on tropical biodiversity, the University of Genoa said in a statement on Friday.

The scuba diving activity during which the deadly accident occurred was not part of the planned research and was “undertaken privately”, it said.

The university also said the two other victims – student Sommacal and recent graduate Gualtieri – were not involved in the scientific mission.

The five were exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 metres in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s foreign ministry.

The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 metres.

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

Maldives presidential spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said earlier that the search was suspended after Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian 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.