Costa Concordia: Inside the sunken cruise ship (new video)
Divers have captured chilling footage of the ghostly world inside the sunken Costa Concordia.
The footage was captured days before salvage workers are due to attempt to refloat the marooned cruise ship, which crashed into rocks on the Italian island of Giglio in 2012.
Police divers entered the 950 foot vessel which has become covered in algae and captured eerie footage of shredded metal work, smashed doors, peeling wood, staircases, shops and corridors as well as drifting possessions and furniture.
The divers entered the vessel after it was righted and secures in a complex operation in September 2013, reports the Independent.
The task of floating the ship wreck is not an easy one. It will be the largest maritime salvage in history.
According to the Telegraph, salvage crews plan to initially float the ship by just two metres to check that the punctured hull does not shatter and spew tonnes of mattresses, rotten food and chemicals into the surrounding water.
If they manage to do so successfully, the ship will be floated off the specially built undersea platform into deeper water so that chains can be fastened under the ship to make it sturdier.
The ship will then be slowly raised a total of 12 metres using 30 giant metal floatation tanks which have been fixed to the side of the ship and can be pumped full of air.
As it is slowly raised, deck by deck, workers will clear out debris emerging above the water line. Next, nets will be fixed around the ship to stop any further debris falling out as the ship is towed off to the port of Genoa to be scrapped.
The 150 mile trip to Genoa will be made at about walking pace and will take around five days, but officials have warned that any hint of storms could postpone the trip, reports the Telegraph.
4,200 passengers and crew fled the luxury ship in panic as it tilted onto shallow rocks in 2012 and 32 people drowned.
The manslaughter trial of Francesco Schettino, the former captain of the Costa Concordia continues in Tuscany.
Schettino is accused of steering the ship into the rocky coast of Giglio while attempting a risky, so called 'sail past' of the island.
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