COSTA CONCORDIA , updates

Oct 12, 2011
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A couple have been brought ashore after being found alive on a stricken Italian cruise ship.

The Costa Concordia hit rocks off the west coast of Italy, with more than 4,000 people onboard.

The man and woman were rescued early on Sunday, more than 24 hours after disaster struck. They were found after search teams picked up their voices.

The couple are believed to be from South Korea and were reportedly on their honeymoon.

This, one of Italy's worst-ever shipping disasters, has left at least three people dead and 70 injured. A further 40 people are still unaccounted for.

Most of those onboard got to safety in lifeboats, some jumped into the cold water to escape the listing liner. Survivors have compared what happened to the Titanic disaster.

Police say the captain has been arrested on suspicion of multiple manslaughter. He has been taken to a prison, where he is awaiting questioning.




A third survivor has been plucked to safety from a capsized cruise liner off the west coast of Italy. But shortly afterwards two more bodies were found in a submerged part of the ship.

The Costa Concordia's chief purser, suffering from a broken leg, was flown to hospital. Earlier, a honeymooning South Korean couple were found uninjured and taken ashore from the ship that hit rocks, late on Friday.

Italian authorities now put the number of people missing at around 15. But on Sunday afternoon, Paris said more than 20 French citizens were still unaccounted for.

Captain Cosimo Nicastro of the Italian Coastguard said: "We have rescue divers. They are going underwater, to check underwater parts of the ship...if there is a possibility of people still on board. So we keep going. We keep looking. We don't stop and we keep searching."

More than 4,000 people were on board the luxury liner. Two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member had already been confirmed dead.



That is what many are saying as the Costa Concordia’s captain is held on suspicion of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship with passengers still on board.

Officials believe he brought his vessel too close to the island of Giglio. Speaking before his arrest, Francesco Schettino disagreed, saying the rock was not shown on his maritime chart.

“It was marked just as water at some 100-150 metres from the rocks and we were about 300 metres from the shore,” he said in a television interview. “We should not have had this contact.”

But the captain’s actions are being questioned by residents on the mainland nearby.

“We are in the 21st century and with all this technology on the ships, certain things should not happen,” said Augusto Cerulli in the port of Santo Stefano. “I have worked at sea and there is something here that is not adding up. The captain has got into trouble.”

“In my opinion, and I have many friends who are captains, it seems like it was human error,” added fellow resident Giuseppe Narduzzi. “It passed too close to the shore of the island. It should have been much further from the coastline.”

Horror stories continue to emerge with passengers telling of people leaping into the sea and fighting over lifejackets in panic amid a lack of information.

French survivors were repatriated to Marseille but one woman told how her father was not among them.

“The news is bad, because dad’s body has been found, so he’s actually dead and won’t be coming home with us,” she said, fighting back tears.

“I’m very angry about the way things went, because apparently they couldn’t get a life jacket and couldn’t get to the lifeboats. They saw people in yellow jackets leaving before them, and it’s hard to know that the crew members were gone before the people who were on the boat. My father gave priority to women and children, and he didn’t make it.”

The fear is that the full extent of this tragedy has not yet emerged.





That is what many are saying as the Costa Concordia's captain is held on suspicion of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship with passengers still on board.

Officials believe he brought his vessel too close to the island of Giglio. Speaking before his arrest, Francesco Schettino disagreed, saying the rock was not shown on his maritime chart.

"It was marked just as water at some 100-150 metres from the rocks and we were about 300 metres from the shore," he said in a television interview. "We should not have had this contact."

But the captain's actions are being questioned by residents on the mainland nearby.

"We are in the 21st century and with all this technology on the ships, certain things should not happen," said Augusto Cerulli in the port of Santo Stefano. "I have worked at sea and there is something here that is not adding up. The captain has got into trouble."

"In my opinion, and I have many friends who are captains, it seems like it was human error," added fellow resident Giuseppe Narduzzi. "It passed too close to the shore of the island. It should have been much further from the coastline."

Horror stories continue to emerge with passengers telling of people leaping into the sea and fighting over lifejackets in panic amid a lack of information.

French survivors were repatriated to Marseille but one woman told how her father was not among them.

"The news is bad, because dad's body has been found, so he's actually dead and won't be coming home with us," she said, fighting back tears.

"I'm very angry about the way things went, because apparently they couldn't get a life jacket and couldn't get to the lifeboats. They saw people in yellow jackets leaving before them, and it's hard to know that the crew members were gone before the people who were on the boat. My father gave priority to women and children, and he didn't make it."

The fear is that the full extent of this tragedy has not yet emerged.
 
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