New pictures reveal Costa Concordia wreck two years after sinking
New pictures of the Costa Concordia have emerged as people commemorated the two-year anniversary of the death of 32 people who lost their lives when the ship sunk off the island of Giglio on 13 January 2011.
The Concordia slammed into a reef off Giglio when the captain took it off course in an apparent stunt to bring it closer to the island. With a 70-meter (230ft) gash in its hull, the ship listed for an hour and finally capsized off Giglio's port.
Survivors of the capsized ship laid wreaths at the site, and commemorated with a mass and a concert.
Madeline Soria Molina, pictured above left, sister of Peruvian crew member Erika Fani Soria Molina, one of the 32 victims, prayed as flowers floated in the water near the wreck off the Tuscan coast.
According to the Daily Mail, the huge operation to try and lift the shipwreck outside Giglio's harbour will begin in June.
At a cost of €30 million, the world's largest semi-submersible vessel in the world, the Dockwise Vanguard, will be used to tow the cruise ship away.
It is believed the entire operation to remove the ship from Giglio will ultimately cost around £500 million by the time it is finished.
Twelve companies are bidding for the job of dismantling, scrapping and recycling the vessel - a contract that is said to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, adds the Mail Online.
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