Video shows chaos on doomed Costa Concordia

Investigators in Grosseto,who are leading the enquiry into the accident in which 32 people died,said they intended to get hold of the video for a closer examination.

“This is new to us,too. It was also the first time I had seen it. We have already questioned everybody who was on the bridge and nobody told us about this video,” said prosecutor Francesco Verusio on ANSA.

The video was filmed around 10:15 pm on January 13,around half an hour after the ship hit a reef off the island of Giglio.

In the dim emergency lighting on the bridge,the red and blue lights on monitoring screens are barely visible but it is possible to make out the captain,Francesco Schettino,and a dozen or so colleagues.

They are scanning the screens,telephoning and talking among themselves,initially fairly calmly but with growing tension as alarming news came from the engine room.

“The engines are not responding and going to hell,” can be heard on the tape. “There is a big gaping hole and the water is coming in,” someone else says.

“Wait until we get into shallower waters near the bank,at how many metres are we?”

Later someone can be heard announcing: “Captain,the passengers are starting to get into the life boats by themselves.” Schettino is heard to reply in Neapolitan dialect: “E vabbuo” (OK,that’s alright).

Just before the ship is abandoned,someone is heard saying,distraught: “What shall we do,what shall we do?”

The bodies of 15 of the 32 people who died in the tragedy have not so far been recovered. A total of 4,229 passengers and crew were on the cruise liner at the time.

Just over a month after the disaster,the wreck remains at the site of accident with operations to empty its tanks of 2,400 tonnes of fuel to begin Monday.