Post date: Jan 14, 2012 2:15:54 PM
A woman evacuated from an Italian cruise ship which ran aground describes scenes of panic onboard.
NEAR GIGLIO ISLAND, ITALY (JANUARY 14, 2012) (GUARDIA DI FINANZA POLICE HANDOUT) - An Italian woman evacuated from a cruise ship which ran aground and keeled over off the Italian coast, likened the experience to a scene from the film "Titanic".
Francesca Sinatra was rescued from the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia carrying over 4,000 people. She said panicked passengers caused scenes of disaster onboard.
"I can easily understand the comparisons to the film, how it must have been on the Titanic, or in a fiction film. The scenes of panic create disaster. There were people scrambling over each other, elderly people wetting themselves," Sinatra told Italy's La Repubblica TV on Saturday (January 14).
"Some life boats were very shaky when they landed in the water and surely let in some water. Ours kept hitting the sides of the ship because as the ship was keeling it was impossible to lower the life boats in a vertical manner, also with the energy it was lacking and with the pieces of falling metal."
At least three people were killed and rescuers were searching for other victims on Saturday after the ship ran aground and keeled over.
Passengers said disaster had struck during their evening meal.
Police and passengers quoted on television spoke of some people jumping off the listing, 290-metre-long ship.
The multi-storey luxury vessel settled on its side, partly submerged, just a few hundred metres (yards) from the shore. Authorities declined to speculate on the causes of the accident.
Most of the passengers were believed to be Italian but people of several other nationalities were thought to be on board.