• Home
• News
• Cruise Ships
• New Ships
• Cruise Lines
• PSA

At least three dead as Costa Concordia runs aground

Cruise industry's worst nightmare as state-of-art ship has to be abandoned on sandbar

The unimaginable happened last night when the 114,500-ton state-of-the-art cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off the Tuscan coast of Italy, killing at least three people and leaving many injured.

It was the industry’s worst nightmare come true as the 3,700-passenger ship, owned by Costa Cruises, hit a sandbar near the island of Giglio and listed about 20 degrees. It is now lying on its side.

Costa Concordia had just left Rome for a Mediterranean cruise to Marseille

A mix of British, Italian, German and French passengers were on board, along with 1,000 crew.

Passengers were enjoying heir first evening meal on board when they heard a loud bang, and were told the ship had suffered electrical problems, a passenger told Italy’s Ansa news agency. Another said there were “scenes of panic”.

People reached land by lifeboats but some swam ashore, while rescue teams boarded the ship to search for survivors. The BBC reported that helicopters evacuated the last 50 people on the deck who were in a “worsening” situation.

Italian coastguards this morning confirmed that three people had died.

A Biritish Foreign Office representative is on his way to the scene. The passenger guest list was predominantly Italian but it is understood there were 24 Britons on board. The Daily Mail reported that there were no Britons among the dead and injured.

Costa Concordia had set sail at 7pm from Civitavecchia, near Rome, for a Mediterranean cruise to Sicily, Sardinia Spain and Marseille. Not long afterwards the unimaginable happened.

Associated Press reported that the crew had failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the ship and that a drill was scheduled for this afternoon. “It was so unorganised, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 17:00 (16:00 GMT),” Melissa Goduti, 28, from the US told AP. “We had joked what if something had happened today.”

A cabin steward said that orders were given to abandon ship as the ship began to list.

Rescued passengers were accommodated in hotels, schools and a church on Giglio, a resort island 25km (18 miles) off Italy’s western coast. Most were then moved to the mainland, the BBC was told

A local coast guard official told the AFP news agency there was a 30m hole in the ship but that it was too early to say what exactly had happened.

Costa Cruises, the company which owns the ship, said it could not yet say what had caused the accident. “The gradual listing of the ship made the evacuation extremely difficult,” a statement said. “The position of the ship, which is worsening, is making more difficult the last part of the evacuation.

“We’d like to express our deepest gratitude to the coastguard and other emergency services, including the authorities and citizens of the island of Giglio, who did their best in saving and helping the passengers and crew.”