Explosions used for 29 missing on Italian liner
GIGLIO. January 18. KAZINFORM Rescue squads used controlled explosions on Tuesday to enter a stricken Italian cruise liner in the increasingly despairing hunt for survivors as authorities almost doubled their estimate of the number missing on the huge vessel to 29 people; Kazinform refers to China Daily.
The Costa Concordia's owners accused their captain of causing Friday's disaster by veering the ship too close to shore, where it hit a rock, in a bravura "salute" to residents of a Tuscan Island off Italy's Mediterranean coast.
Captain Francesco Schettino was arrested on Saturday accused of manslaughter and abandoning the ship before all people were evacuated, and he was due to appear before magistrates for questioning on Tuesday morning.
Prosecutors say Schettino also refused to go back on board when requested by the coastguard.
The three explosions were carried out early on Tuesday morning to allow firefighters and scuba divers to enter and leave parts of the ship that they had not yet been able to search.
"Now we will have better access to the gathering points on the ship, where it seems there might be more chance of finding someone, dead or alive," said firefighters' spokesman Luca Cari.
"They will take micro-cameras in there, and we will be simultaneously looking at the few remaining dry areas and also the wet areas," he said; Kazinform cites China Daily.
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