The underwater search has been called off "definitively"
Italian divers have
abandoned their search for bodies inside the wrecked cruise ship Costa
Concordia after conditions underwater deteriorated.
"We have definitively stopped the underwater search inside the ship," a spokesman for the fire brigade on the island said.
Fifteen people are still missing after the ship ran aground off Italy on 13 January with the loss of 17 lives.
Work to recovered the capsized vessel may take up to 10 months.
Italy's civil protection agency, which has been overseeing
rescue efforts, said it had contacted the families of the missing, and
the foreign embassies involved, to explain its decision.
Emergency crews would continue to inspect the part of the
ship that is above the water line and use specialist equipment to check
whether there could be any corpses on the sea bed, it said.
Fuel challenge
Divers have described tricky conditions inside the ship, with corridors cluttered with furniture and turbid waters.
Searchers have been lowered on to the ship by helicopter
Dives have been limited to a maximum of 50 minutes, making it difficult to penetrate far into the vessel.
Work to pump out more than 2,300 tonnes of diesel from the ship has been hampered by bad weather.
The operation to move the ship itself cannot safely begin until the fuel is removed.
The 114,500-tonne ship ran aground on rocks with more than 4,200 people on board.
It was holed by a rock after being steered by its captain to within 150 metres (yards) of the tiny island of Giglio.
The captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest in
his home town of Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, while his actions are
investigated.
He is accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck,
and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated. He denies the
allegations.
Costa Crociere, which is part of the world's largest cruise
ship operator Carnival Group, has offered uninjured passengers 11,000
euros ($14,500; £9,200) each in compensation, on condition that they
drop any legal action.
However, a consumer group and two US law firms are filing a
class-action lawsuit in the US, demanding at least $160,000 (£105,000)
for each passenger on the ship.
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