29 still missing in Italian cruise ship disaster

An Italian firefighter helicopter lifts up a passenger from the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Firefighters worked Sunday to rescue a crew member with a suspected broken leg from the overturned hulk of the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia, 36 hours after it ran aground. More than 40 people are still unaccounted-for. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME—Four crewmen and 25 passengers remain unaccounted for three days after the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia crashed off Tuscany, the coast guard said Monday.

“An hour ago I received a report from the (local) Grosseto administration that 29 people remain unaccounted for,” coastguard chief Marco Brusco said on Italian television, revising upward an earlier estimate of about 15.

The earlier estimate did not take into account 10 Germans that a German official said were still missing Monday.

Brusco said “there are still areas (of the ship) to check” and that “a glimmer of hope remains”.

So far six bodies have been recovered, those of one Italian, one Spanish and two French tourists, a Peruvian seaman and one unidentified victim.

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