Costa Concordia salvage update: Video from inside wreckage released

Italian police have released an eight-minute footage with underwater images from within the Costa Concordia wreckage, two and a half years after it capsized.

Several scenes are spookily reminiscent of James Cameron’s recordings from the Titanic wreck.

The 950-foot liner, which ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio with the loss of 32 lives in 2012, has lain on the seabed since it capsized. The hull of the ship was righted last September, allowing police divers to record the extraordinary scenes. Splashing into the water beside the discolored wreck, the divers are seen swimming through eerily empty corridors and public areas, past shop fronts and desks with computers still standing, and floating by balconies on which sunbathers would once have stretched.

Paintings are slowly being turned green by algae.

Since the tragedy, Costa Concordia Captain Francesco Schettino has been on trial for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.

Costa Concordia ship will be refloated within 7-10 days and towed to Genoa, where it will be dismantled for scrap.