As icy seawater began to swamp the Costa Concordia, passengers desperately scrambled down ropes to safetyPassengers fought over lifeboats, a mother crawled up almost vertical corridors in pitch blackness with her daughter, and elderly couples sobbed as icy decks slipped under water.A harrowing picture is emerging of the chaotic evacuation of more than 4,000 people from the luxury cruise ship that sank into the Mediterranean off the coast of Tuscany, killing at least three and leaving several others critically hurt.As divers continued to search for possible missing or trapped passengers and crew of the Costa Concordia, survivors described scenes of total panic and confusion aboard as crew were at first unwilling then unable to launch lifeboats while the ship listed into the freezing sea. Survivors described climbing down ladders and ropes to escape.Kirsty Cook, one of eight British dancers working on the cruise, said that she was "lucky to be alive" after using a rope ladder to climb down to a rescue boat. Another dancer, Rosie Metcalf, 22, from Dorset, had to cling to a fire hose before being winched to safety by a helicopter crew. The liner was only three hours out of port and passengers had not yet been given a safety drill. There was also confusion over some 50 to 70 people who were still unaccounted for, but the picture remained unclear as rescuers struggled to keep track of survivors who were being ferried to different ports.By Saturday night the seven-year-old Costa Concordia lay almost flat on its side off the tiny island of Giglio, about 18 miles off the coast of Tuscany, with a 50m gash in its hull. The captain was praised by shipping experts for trying to bring his stricken vessel as close to shore as possible. But there was also anger about the lengthy delays in evacuating the �375m ship."The crew couldn't unhook the lifeboats," said Giuseppe D'Avino, a pastry cook from Modena, who eventually got aboard a boat after waiting for about an hour. "There was a lot of panic. There were people screaming. There were children bawling. And even some fisticuffs among the passengers."A party of German survivors said the messages relayed to passengers were misleading. "It was just 'Not to worry. Not to worry'," said one.Then, said a man who would give only his surname, Schmitz, passengers were left alone to queue for the lifeboats: "For more than three hours, we did not see any member of the crew."Some passengers were apparently stranded on the lower decks of the ship. "I and my friends lifted up 13 or 14 people," Schmitz said. His friend, who also asked to be identified only by her surname of Gottschalk, said that she reached a lifeboat by lowering herself hand over hand down a rope.As the ship listed to starboard, submerging almost half of the vessel, the lifeboats on that side became unusable and people leapt into the water. "Some of my colleagues had no option but to jump," said John Fernandes, 28, a waiter from Goa. "They were on the tilted side. They saw that the water was very close. They survived."Usable lifeboats were then high above sea level. "We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats," said Mike van Dijk, 54, a South African. "We were standing in the corridors and they weren't allowing us to get on to the boats. It was an absolute scramble."Nareen Faured, also from South Africa, said: "We were suspended for 45 minutes in the lifeboat in mid-air."Other passengers did not know where their muster stations were. "It was so disorganised, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5pm," said Melissa Goduti, 28, of Connecticut in the US. "We had joked what if something had happened today." Waiting for up to three hours for rescue, passengers were cold and traumatised. Five Italian military and coastguard helicopters joined local fishing boats in the area to help pluck survivors to safety."Have you seen Titanic? That's exactly what it was like," said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles who was with her sister and parents. "They all had dark red bruises from crawling up corridors that were nearly vertical.""We were crawling up a hallway, in the dark, with only the light from the life vest flashing," her mother, Georgia Ananias, 61, said. "We could hear plates and dishes crashing, people slamming against walls."She said that an Argentinian couple had handed her their baby daughter, unable to keep their balance as the ship lurched. They were left standing on a wall, unable to crawl further."He said 'take my baby'," Ananias said, sobbing. "I grabbed her, but then I was being pushed down. I didn't want the baby to fall down the stairs. I gave the baby back. I thought that was the end and that they should be with their baby."Valerie whispered "I wonder where they are?"The family were some of the last off the ship, shimmying along a rope down the exposed side of the ship to a waiting boat.Evacuees were taken to schools, hotels and a church on Giglio. The most seriously injured were taken to makeshift first aid centres in tents on the quayside. Ambulances pulled away from the seafront every few minutes and raced up the steep hill, sirens blaring.In a school corridor littered with foil thermal blankets and discarded food packets, Ravi Kumar Davnani, a crew member, dressed in black-and-white check chef's trousers, said that he had been told that divers were checking the underside of the Costa Concordia for bodies.Survivors outnumbered Giglio's 1,500 residents, and its mayor, Sergio Ortelli, issued an appeal for "anyone with a roof" to open their homes to evacuees. People came out with blankets and drinks. Those evacuated by helicopter were flown to the nearby city of Grosseto, while others, rescued by local ferries pressed into service, took survivors to Porto Santo Stefano.Christine Hammer, 65, from Bonn, stepped off a ferry from Giglio wearing evening clothes and a pair of hiking boots given by an islander. She said that she had been eating her first course, on her first night aboard her first-ever cruise, a gift to her and husband, Gert, from her local church where she volunteers."We heard a crash. Glasses and plates fell down and we went out of the dining room and we were told it wasn't anything dangerous," she said."No one counted us, neither in the lifeboats or on land," said Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer. She said there had been no evacuation drill since she boarded in France on 8 January.As dawn broke, a painstaking search of the interior of the 290m ship began."There are some 2,000 cabins, and the ship isn't straight," coastguard commander Francesco Paolillo said. "I'll leave it to your imagination to understand how they are working as they move through it."Paolillo said that the Concordia had set sail with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew, from Civitavecchia, near Rome, on Friday, heading for Savona in north-west Italy, when its crew signalled an electrical fault to port authorities. Paolillo said the captain had tried to steer into shallow waters. Shortly afterwards, at about 10.30pm local time, there was a loud explosion and the Genoa-based vessel apparently struck something off Giglio, smashing a hole in the port-side hull and grounding the ship.Costa Crociere, the company that owns the ship, said it was not immediately possible to determine the cause of the problem. "Our first thoughts go to the victims and we would like to express our condolences and our closeness to their families and friends," it said.The Costa Concordia, the biggest ship ever built in Italy, was scheduled to call at Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo, in what the cruise publicity had promised would be a voyage infused with the "scent of citrus fruits".Survivors in shock: what they sawFabio Costa, works in a shop on the ship"We felt the boat hitting something and everything just started to fall. All the glasses broke and everybody started to panic and run. We looked through the window and we saw the water getting closer and closer. Everything happened really, really fast and we saw the water coming in. It was easier for people just to jump into the sea."Mara Parmegia, passenger "We were very scared and freezing because we were at dinner so everyone was in evening wear. They gave us blankets but there weren't enough."Francesca Sinatra, passenger"I can easily understand the comparisons with the film, how it must have been on the Titanic, or in a fiction film. The scenes of panic create disaster. There were people scrambling over each other."Mike van Dijk, passenger"We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the side. We were standing in the corridors and they weren't allowing us to get on to the boats."ItalyEuropeCruisesJohn HooperTracy McVeighguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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