Girl, 5, among four bodies found in cruise ship

Thu February 23, 2012 5:03am

FOUR more bodies were found today on the shipwrecked Italian cruise liner, the Costa Concordia, just hours after scaffolding was set up to allow divers to continue their search, Sky Italia's TG24 reported.

"Bodies of victims have been located. It seems there are four. The operation to recover them is underway," the office of the official tasked with the cleanup operation said.

Among the bodies was that of five-year-old Dayana Arlotti, an Italian girl who was the youngest passenger. She was travelling with her father.

Prior to the latest discovery, 17 bodies had been found, and 15 people were listed as missing, presumed dead.

The ship ran aground near the island of Giglio on January 13 while carrying 4229 people, including about 1000 crew members.

The scaffolding, which allowed divers to continue searching the decks of the potentially-unstable vessel, was completed today. The bodies were found on deck four.

The head of Italy's civil protection agency, Franco Gabrielli, said in recent days that experts expected all the remaining bodies to be recovered from the fourth deck, where passengers gathered once the decision was made to abandon ship.

The search of underwater deck areas was previously called off on January 31 amid bad weather and fears that the cruise liner could slip from the ledge where it came to rest, placing recovery divers in jeopardy. The focus then shifted to the operation to pump the ship's fuel reserves off the vessel, which began on February 12.

Various legal actions have been filed against the ship's operator and its parent company, Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines, by passengers and their families since the disaster, including a $528 million suit in Florida.

The Costa Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest and faces charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.

News