Getting an 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Invalid section 0.' when doing a search on multiple sections

I am getting an exception when doing a search on multiple section. It occurs when applying a snapshot on the datasource.

Background: I have (pre-defined) sections, and each section has a collection of items. Sections won't appear in the viewController if there are no items in section. Items are added by a function of the app. Once an item is added in one of the section, datasource update is called and will show the section with the item added.

Problem: Encountering this issue when trying to search for a non-existent item twice. To reproduce, you can enter a non-existent item, then delete the search string via a backspace, then input a non-existing item again, then error will be thrown on the dataSource.apply().
Hoping someone can help. TIA!

Here is the code:

Code Block 
func updateData(on searchItem: String = "") {
				snapshot = NSDiffableDataSourceSnapshot<Section, Item>()
				
				Manager.shared.getAllSections().forEach { section in
						
						let items = section.items
						//if search string is empty, we just assign the items of the section, 
						//else we filter it based on the searchItem
						var filteredItems = searchItem.isEmpty ? items :
								items.filter { $0.itemName.lowercased().contains(searchItem.lowercased()) }
						
						//if theres no items filtered, we ain't appending any section and items
						if filteredItems.count > 0 {
								snapshot.appendSections([section])
								snapshot.appendItems(filteredItems)
						}
				}
				
				//I get the exception when calling apply on dataSource
				dataSource.apply(snapshot, animatingDifferences: false)
		}
		 //Here is the updateSearchResults delegate method triggered when typing something in the search bar
		func updateSearchResults(for searchController: UISearchController) {
				guard let searchedItem = searchController.searchBar.text, !searchedItem.isEmpty else {	 
						updateData()
						return
				}
				
				updateData(on: searchedItem)
		}