Salvage teams prepare to pump Concordia’s fuel

A barge carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia, signalling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea.

Actual pumping of the oil isn’t expected to begin until Saturday, but teams from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were working on the bow of the Concordia and divers made underwater inspections to identify the precise locations of the fuel tanks.

They were at work on the now-hitched Meloria barge as divers who blasted through a submerged section of the third-floor deck located another body from the wreckage, bringing the death toll to 16.