Around 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members were being evacuated from a cruise ship off the coast of Italy late Friday, after it ran aground and started taking on water, the Italian coast guard said.
"At around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) the 290-metre-long Costa Concordia cruise ship... began taking on water and tilting over by around 20 degrees," the coast guard said in a statement.
"The passengers are not in danger, a rescue mission is underway," a coast guard spokesman at port in Tuscany told the media, as passengers were shipped off the Costa Concordia in lifeboats.
Passengers heard a large boom and were initially told the ship had shuddered to a halt for electrical reasons, before being told to put on their life-jackets, a passenger from the boat told ANSA by telephone.
The Costa Crociera company, which owns the vessel, said that it was not yet possible to say what caused the problem, but that the evacuation had been begun as quickly as possible and was winding up.
"The ship was on a cruise in the Mediterranean, leaving from Savona with planned stops in Civitavecchia, Palermo, Cagliari, Palma, Barcelona and Marseille," the company said.
"There were around 1,000 Italian passengers on board, as well as 500 Germans and around 150 French people," it added.
The cruise ship had set off from the Civitavecchia port near Rome earlier on Friday when the vessel got into difficulties and started to lean dangerously.
Boats from the nearby port were helping evacuate the passengers and crew, including pregnant women and children. There were no injuries reported.