Eight deaths reported as cruise ship runs aground off Italy

A cruise ship with 4,200 people on board ran aground and ripped a 165-foot gash in its hull off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Friday night, and local officials reported that at least six people died. Some on the island said eight were dead.
At least three bodies were recovered from the sea, the Italian coast guard reported.
Helicopters were working to pluck to safety some 50 people still trapped aboard the badly listing Costa Concordia on Saturday, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo.
Some people were thrown into the sea when the Costa Concordia started listing, others jumped to evacuate the ship, officials said.


The ship was three-quarters under water and sinking fast, a Giglio hotel clerk told NBC News on Saturday.
The Telegraph of London said some passengers jumped from the steeply listing ship and swam a short distance to the island. A photo showed the brightly lit ship teetering just outside a harbor wall.
One official said that among the dead was a man around age 65, who might have been ill or who might not have withstood the cold of the sea at night, Il Messagero said.
The 290-meter Costa Concordia had left the port of Savona at 7 p.m. local time and was sailing to Civitavecchia, its first port of call, when it ran aground around 9 p.m.
Costa Cruises said 3,200 passengers were aboard, along with 1,023 crew members. Coast Guard Officials said the liner was listing at 20 degrees but was not in danger of sinking.


A local mayor on Giglio, a popular vacation island about 18 miles off the Tuscan coast, said he was trying to find rooms to house the stranded passengers and crew overnight. The cruise ship had departed from the Civitavecchia port near Rome earlier on Friday with scheduled calls at Palermo, Cagliari, Palma, Barcelona and Marseille.


The Italian news agency ANSA said the Concordia started to take on water and lean on the right side after running aground on Giglio's southern tip, in an area popular with divers and close to high cliffs.


ORIGINAL POST: More than 4,000 passengers and crew are being evacuated from a cruise ship off the coast of Italy in the wake of an accident, the AFP is reporting.


Citing the Italian coast guard, the news service says the 114,500-ton Costa Concordia ran aground late Friday shortly after setting sail from the port of Civitavecchia, near Rome, and has taken on water and begun to tilt.


The five-year-old ship is operated by Italy-based Costa Cruises, which is owned by industry giant Carnival Corp.


"The passengers are not in danger," a coast guard spokesman is quoted by AFP as saying, but "a rescue mission is underway.


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