The vast wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia shifted on its undersea ledge on Friday, forcing a new suspension of rescue work and threatening plans to pump oil out to prevent environmental disaster. Fire-fighters' spokesman Luca Cari said rescue squads would be discussing the next step after the movement made conditions unsafe for divers already hampered by poor visibility, floating objects and underwater debris.
Seven days after the 114,500-tonne ship ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, hopes of finding anyone alive have all but disappeared and the cold waters around the ship have become rougher, with worse weather expected at the weekend. "The ship is slipping about 15 millimetres at the front and seven millimetres an hour at the back. This is not a lot but it has to be kept under control," Nicola Costagli, a geophysics professor who is a consultant to the civil protection department, told SkyTG24 television.
Attention is now turning to how to remove more than 2,300 tonnes of fuel aboard the vessel, which lies on its side on a rock shelf in about 20 metres of water off the little island of Giglio and which could slide off its resting place. Costagli said the ship was resting on two rocky protrusions, adding "we have to establish if these two points of support are stable".
Salvage crews are waiting until the search for survivors and bodies is called off before they can begin pumping the fuel out of the wreck, a process expected to take at least two weeks. Environment Minister Corrado Clini told parliament on Thursday he had instructed the liner's operator, Costa Cruises, to take all possible measures to anchor the ship to prevent it from slipping further into the sea.
"If the ship slides, we hope that it doesn't break into pieces and that the fuel tanks do not open up," he said. Clini said there was a risk that the ship could sink to 50 to 90 metres below the rock ledge on which it is caught, creating a major hazard to the environment in one of Europe's largest natural marine parks.
Eleven people are known to have died out of more than 4,200 passengers and crew aboard when the ship struck a rock just metres from the shoreline, tearing a large gash in the side of the hull. As many as 24 are still unaccounted for, although that number probably includes bodies found but not yet identified. Rescue workers are still looking for a missing five-year-old girl and her father.
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