Italian cruise disaster: Captain arrested, survivors recall 'scenes like Titanic'
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The captain of a luxury cruise liner that keeled over off Tuscany, killing three people and leaving 41 unaccounted for, was arrested Saturday as survivors told of scenes ‘like the Titanic’.
Terrified passengers rushed to get into lifeboats and 100 people had to be rescued from the sea.
The Costa Concordia with more than 4,000 people on board apparently hit a reef, tearing a 70- to 100-metre (230- to 330-foot) gash in its hull, just hours after setting off from the Italian port of Civitavecchia near Rome on Friday.
The ship quickly listed, leaving it half submerged in shallow waters near the island of Giglio off the west coast of Italy.
Less than 24 hours after the accident, the captain, Francesco Schettino, and first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, were arrested, local prosecutors said, and Italian media reported that they faced possible charges of multiple homicide and abandoning ship before all passengers were rescued.
The captain “approached Giglio Island in a very awkward way, hit a rock that stuck into its left side, making (the boat) list and take on a huge amount of water in the space of two or three minutes,” Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio told reporters.
Fire chief Ennio Aquilino told the media his men had ‘plucked 100 people from the water and saved around 60 others who were trapped in the boat’.
At least 42 are injured, including two seriously – a woman with a blow to the head and a man struck in the spine. Medical sources said most had broken limbs and suffered from hypothermia.
Black box recovered
Coastguards meanwhile said divers had recovered the ship's ‘black box’, which should contain records of the precise route and conversations among the crew. The search for survivors was called off for the night late on Saturday.
But 41 people who had been on board were still missing, said Grosseto governor Giuseppe Linardi and port officials, although it was not clear whether they had made their own way to safety without checking in with authorities.
Passengers earlier described panic and confusion on board after they felt the ship run into something as they sat down for dinner on Friday.
"There were scenes of panic like on the Titanic. We ran aground on rocks," passenger Mara Parmegiani was quoted by Italian media as saying. "We were very scared and freezing."
"We heard a loud noise, the plates and cutlery fell on the floor and the lights went out, but the staff told us not to worry," said Roberto Bombardieri, a hairdresser.
Another survivor, cruise ship worker Fabio Costa, said people panicked and began pushing in order to get into lifeboats.
"Everything just started to fall and everybody started to panic and run," he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
"We had no idea how serious it was until we got out and we looked through the window and we saw the water coming closer and closer. Everything happened really, really fast," he said.
"Everybody tried to get on the boats but people started to panic so they were pushing each other and the crew was trying to help. A lot of people were falling down the stairs," he added.
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