Three More Bodies Discovered in Costa Concordia Wreckage
Three additional bodies were discovered in the wreckage of sunken Italian cruise ship the Costa Concordia on Thursday.
The bodies were discovered outside the cruise ship, near the seabed, BBC News reports.
The Costa Concordia was carrying 4,200 passengers and crewmembers when it capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January.
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The accident killed 32 people, and seven bodies were unaccounted until Thursday's discovery. Four bodies remain missing.
Formal identification of all the bodies has not yet been completed.
Italian prosecutors are accusing the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning ship. Schettino was in control of the ship when it capsized just hours after leaving port following a run in with rocks in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Schettino admitted to prosecutors that he brought the ship too close to shore, but maintains that he is innocent of the charges against him.
The first closed-door evidence hearing into the shipwreck began late last month and findings from the hearing will help the court determine if a trial against Schettino is warranted.
Schettino is currently under house arrest until a final decision is made with regard to the case. The next hearing is scheduled to take place in July.
Just last week investigators launched a probe into the possibility that thieves invaded the ship's wreckage, as the ship's bell, which had the name Costa Concordia inscribed on it, is missing.
Authorities believe that thieves might have evaded 24-hour surveillance by the Italian coastguard, as well as a series of laser systems put in place to measure shifts near the sunken ship, in order to remove the bell from one of the ship's decks.
It is unclear why the bell would have been stolen.
