Prosecutor: Captain had abandoned ship before passengers

An Italian prosecutor has confirmed allegations from passengers and others that the captain of the cruise ship abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had left.

An Italian prosecutor has confirmed allegations from passengers and others that the captain of the cruise ship abandoned the Costa Concordia cruise liner before all the passengers had left.

Asked Sunday by Sky Italia TV about allegations that the captain had left the ship before the last passenger had been rescued, Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio replied, “Unfortunately I must confirm that circumstance.”

A third survivor was discovered today inside the overturned ship grounded off the Tuscan coast.

Firefighters’ spokesman Luca Cari said rescuers had spoken to the person inside the ship but the survivor had not yet been removed.

The third survivor is a crew member with a suspected broken leg, Mr Cari said.

He said the man was an Italian working in cabin service.

Late last night a South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued when firefighters in the unsubmerged part of the ship heard their screams.

Three people are confirmed dead after the luxury cruise ship ran aground on Friday night. Around 40 remain unaccounted-for.

Police divers and rescue crews today circled the wreckage of ship off the coast of the island of Giglio. Crews in dinghies were touching the hull with their hands, near the site of the 160-foot long gash where water flooded in and caused the ship to fall on its side.

Coast guard officials said divers will try to enter the belly of the ship in case anyone is still inside.

Firefighters who had been searching the Costa Concordia for dozens who remained missing heard distinct shouts, “one in a male voice, other in a female voice” coming from the cruiser liner, Coast guard officer Marcello Fertitta said.

They turned out to be a honeymooning South Korean couple, who were brought out in good condition, said Prato fire Cmdr Vincenzo Bennardo.

The terrifying, chaotic escape from the luxury liner was straight out of a scene from Titanic for many of the 4,000-plus passengers and crew on the ship, which ran aground off the Italian coast late Friday and flipped on its side.

Many passengers complained the crew didn’t give them good directions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many to be released.

Several other passengers said crew members told passengers for 45 minutes that there was a simple “technical problem” that had caused the lights to go off.

Passengers said they had never participated in an evacuation drill, although one had been scheduled for yesterday.

Costa Crociera SpA, which is owned by the US-based cruise giant Carnival Corp., defended the actions of its crew and said it was co-operating with the investigation.

The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, was detained for questioning by prosecutors, investigating him for suspected manslaughter, abandoning ship before all others, and causing a shipwreck, state TV and Sky TV said. Prosecutor Francesco Verusio was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying Schettino deliberately chose a sea route that was too close to shore.

At Mass this morning in Giglio’s main church, which opened its doors to the evacuees on Friday night, altar boys and girls brought up to the altar a life vest, a rope, a rescue helmet, a plastic tarp and some bread.

Don Lorenzo, the parish priest, told the congregation that he wanted to make this admittedly “different” offering to God as a memory of what had transpired.

He said each one carried powerful symbolic meaning for what happened on Friday night: the bread that multiplied to feed the survivors, the rope that pulled people to safety, the life vest and helmet that protected them, and the plastic tarp that kept cold bodies warm.

“Our community, our island will never be the same,” he said.

France said two of the confirmed victims were Frenchmen; a Peruvian diplomat identified the third victim as Tomas Alberto Costilla Mendoza, 49, a crewman from Peru. Some 30 people were injured, at least two seriously.