Costa Concordia cruise ship becomes ghoulish tourist attraction

PA

The sunken Costa Concordia has become a grim and unlikely tourist attraction on the Italian isle of Giglio.

Over 1,000 people visited the site of the sunken cruise ship on Saturday, ten times the normal figure of January tourists.

Sightseers have been seen taking pictures of each other at the site, in what the Giglio Tourist Board described as 'sad'.

According to the Sun, spokesman Elizabeth Nanni said: "I find it sad and eerie they are coming to look at the place where people died."

PA

A total of 13 bodies have now been found, while at least 20 people are missing since the boat hit rocks ten days ago.

The 13th body was that of a woman who was found wearing a life vest on the the ship's seventh deck, 10 metres below the water line.

Some reports have also suggested that unregistered passengers may have been on the cruise liner.

A report in the Metro says that Franco Gabrielli, from the Civil Protection Agency, told a press conference: "It may be that there were clandestine passengers on the Costa Concordia."

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently under house arrest and faces charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship while passengers and crew were still aboard.

He has also been accused of deviating from the boat's given course, and sailing too close to the island, but he maintains that Costa Cruises bosses asked for a 'sail-by salute' close to the shore, adding that it was a 'regular practice'.


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