UPDATED: Cruise ship search suspended leaving 16 passengers unaccounted for

Last updated Monday 12.00GMT

The search for missing passengers on the Costa Concordia cruise ship has been suspended after the ship slipped 9cm from its resting place.

Fears are growing that the vessel will soon sink 100 metres to the bottom of the ocean and stormy weather has hampered rescue efforts, reports the Daily Mail.

A five year old Italian girl and her father are among the 16 still unaccounted for. Ten of the 16 missing are passengers and six are crew members.

Giglio’s Mayor Sergio Ortelli said: "The hopes of finding any more survivors are fading. There are also worries oil could start to spill from the ship – sparking an environmental disaster."

The number unaccounted for has increased because two Sicilian women, originally listed among the evacuated, have not contacted relatives.

The threat of an environmental disaster is also a concern with around 2,500 tons of fuel on board the ship.

Environment minister Corrado Clini said: "The environmental risk for the island of Giglio is extremely high. The goal is to avoid that the fuel leaks from the ship. We are working on this. The intervention is urgent."

The Costa Concordia, with more than 4,000 people on board, ran aground in calm conditions on Friday night near the island of Giglio, leading to the death of at least six people.

The captain, who is believed to have worked for the cruise line for 11 years, has been arrested on suspicion of multiple homicide. According to prosecutors, he left the ship before the evacuation. The first officer has also been detained.

Rescue crews found a sixth body – believed to be a male passenger – early this morning in one of the corridors.

A South Korean couple on their honeymoon were found alive in their cabin on Saturday night, 24 hours after the ship went down.

A senior crew member was also airlifted to safety on Sunday after being discovered in one of the restaurants with a broken leg, reports the Daily Mail. He is understood to have stayed behind to help passengers into lifeboats before falling when the ship listed.

The Foreign Office said around 24 British passengers were on board. Most of the passengers were Italian, French and German.

Costa Cruises’ president Gianni Onorato said the cruise line would be working "in full transparency" with Italian authorities" to determine the cause of the accident".

In a statement, Costa Cruises said: "Our first thoughts go to the victims and we would like to express our condolences and our closeness to their families and friends.

"In this moment all our efforts are focused on the completion of the last emergency operations, besides providing assistance to the guests and the crew who were onboard.

"The company will fully co-operate with the relevant authorities in order to determine the causes of what happened."

Speaking to the BBC, Independent travel editor Simon Calder said it was unbelievable that a modern ship could list in this way and called into question the safety of the ship. He likened the tragedy to the sinking of the Titanic, which happened 100 years ago.

Costa Concordia was sailing on a Mediterranean cruise from Civitavecchia (Rome) with scheduled calls at Savona, Italy; Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; Palma de Mallorca; Cagliari and Palermo, Italy.

by Diane Evans and  Bev Fearis

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