Five more Concordia victims identified

The bodies of two Germans, two Americans and an Italian recovered from the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner have been formally identified, local authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.

The corpses, which were recovered in March, were identified as those of Christina and Norbert Ganz from Germany, Barbara and Gerald Heil from the United States, and an Italian member of the ship's crew, Giuseppe Girolamo.

The bodies were among five that were recovered in the past three weeks from the liner, which capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting rocks on January 13.

Two are still unaccounted for.

A total of 32 people are believed to have died when the ship crashed into rocks off an Italian island in January, with two people -- an Italian passenger and Indian crew member - still unaccounted for, according to the prefecture in Grosseto.

Of the 30 identified victims, 12 are German, six French, six Italian, two Peruvian, two American, one Hungarian and one from Spain.

The Costa Concordia, which had 4 229 people on board, ran aground and keeled over, prompting a panicked evacuation in which dozens of people threw themselves into the sea.

Nine people are under investigation for manslaughter, including captain Francesco Schettino, who is also accused of abandoning ship before everyone on board could be evacuated.

Three of those being investigated are executives from the ship's company, Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator. - AFP

April 17 2012 at 12:18pm

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/five-more-concordia-victims-identified-1.1277739