Another body found in Italian ship wreck, death toll rises

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fire brigade divers found a body in a stricken Italian cruise ship on Tuesday, Jan 24, bringing the official death toll to 16 as salvage crews prepared to pump 2,380 tons of fuel from its tanks.

The body was found on the third deck where some of the 114,500-ton vessel's lifeboats were located, with rescuers declining to give further details on the grim discovery 11 days after the Mediterranean tragedy.

Emergency workers also identified one of the victims found so far as 30-year-old Maria D'Introno, whose relatives survived the disaster and said she was too scared to jump into the sea when the order came to abandon the ship.

The story of D'Introno - who had a life jacket but did not know how to swim - is one of the many dramas from a chaotic nighttime evacuation of the massive ship after it hit rocks off the island of Giglio on January 13 and keeled over.

Other victims include Hungarian Sandor Feher, 42, who helped children into a lifeboat before heading back towards his cabin to get his violin, and Frenchman Francis Servel, 71, who gave his wife his lifejacket. She survived.

The anger of survivors has concentrated on captain Francesco Schettino, who is under house arrest at his home on the Amalfi coast and is accused by prosecutors of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.

But Schettino's wife defended him, saying he had become "a scapegoat", AFP reported.