A young Moldovan woman who says she was called to the bridge of the stricken Costa Concordia to help evacuate Russian passengers, defended its embattled captain, saying he worked tirelessly and "saved over 3,000 lives".

A new audiotape has emerged of the captain of the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia insisting that the vessel only had a blackout a full 30 minutes after it had rammed into a reef.