Four divers have lost their lives in the ‘Blood Cave’, a red-walled cavern at Cape Palinuro, near Salerno in southern Italy.

Eight divers were exploring the underwater cave system when they got disorientated after kicking up mud and sand from the floor. They ended up in a nearby tunnel which led four of them to a dead end, where the coast guard found their bodies.

Medical examinations found the divers had suffocated while trying to find the exit from the cave.

The victims were the 23-year old Greek-born Panaiotis Telios, British-born Douglas Rizzo, 41, 36-year-old Susy Covaccini from Salerno, and Andrea Pedroni, aged 41, from Rome.

Funerals for Panaiotis Telios and Susy Covaccini were held on Tuesday, 3 July in Battipaglia, a town in Salerno province.