Europe

Europe

Two dead, 4,000 evacuated as cruise ship runs aground off Italy

14 January 2012 04:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least two people died when an Italian cruise ship with more than 4,000 people on board ran aground off the Tuscan coast late on Friday and started taking on water, APA reports quoting Ria Novosti.

The 290-metre-long, 1,500-cabin Costa Concordia liner hit a reef near the Giglio island at around 8 pm local time (19:00 GMT), after which the ship tilted heavily to one side.

â€œWe were dining when the lights went out,â€ one of the passengers told the Ansa news agency. â€œWe heard a bang and a roar, and dishes crashed to the floor.â€

It was first reported that the ship suffered an electrical failure, but soon afterwards, everyone was ordered to wear life-jackets, media reports quoted witnesses as saying. Some passengers leapt overboard and swam to shore as the liner, stranded several hundred meters away from the shore, started to sink.

Some local media reports said two people died and several others were injured, while the AFP put the death toll at six.

Most of the 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members had been evacuated, but some 200 people were still on board as of 02:30 GMT, the AFP report said.

The Costa Crociera company, which owns the vessel, said that it was not yet possible to establish the causes of the accident.