Italian ship disaster: Survivors plucked from Costa Concordia shipwreck
A South Korean honeymoon couple were plucked from a capsized Italian liner on Sunday, more than 24 hours after it was wrecked.
A South Korean honeymoon couple were plucked from a capsized Italian liner on Sunday, more than 24 hours after it was wrecked, and rescue workers were struggling to save another person trapped on board. Teams were painstakingly checking thousands of rooms on the Costa Concordia for nearly 40 people still missing after the huge vessel foundered and keeled over with more than 4,000 on board, killing at least three people and injuring 70. The task is akin to searching a small town - but one tilted on its side, and largely in darkness and submerged in freezing water. Scores of divers were taking part. Just after dawn on Sunday, a team made voice contact with a third survivor still on board the ship. "We are doing the impossible to reach this person," coastguard spokesman Luciano Nicastro told Italian television. After midnight, rescue workers had found the two South Koreans still alive in a cabin, after locating them from several decks above, and brought them ashore, looking dazed but unharmed. The captain of the luxury 114,500-tonne ship, Francesco Schettino, was under arrest and accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, Italian police said. Passengers, comparing the disaster to the movie "Titanic", told of people leaping into the sea and fighting over lifejackets in panic when the ship hit a rock and ran aground near the island of Giglio, late on Friday. Two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member were dead and 38 people were unaccounted for. The vast hulk of the 290-metre-long cruise ship, resting half-submerged on its side, loomed over the little port of Giglio, a picturesque island in a maritime nature reserve off the Tuscan coast. A large gash was visible on its side. Rescue workers including specialist diving teams were working their way through more than 2,000 cabins on the ship, a floating resort that boasted a huge spa, seven restaurants, bars, cinemas and discotheques. As the search continued, there were demands for explanations of why the vessel had come so close to the shore and bitter complaints about how long it took to evacuate the terrified passengers after the ship ran aground late on Friday. State prosecutor Francesco Verusio said investigations might go beyond the captain. "We are investigating the possible responsibility of other people who could be responsible for such a dangerous manoeuvre," he told SkyTG24 television. "The command systems did not function as they should have." Death toll fearsThere were fears the death toll could rise after considerable confusion on Saturday over the number of missing passengers. Magistrates said Schettino, whose ship was carrying 4,229 passengers and crew, abandoned the vessel before all the passengers were taken off. The vessel's operator, Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp & Plc