A luxury cruise ended in tragedy on Friday evening when the Italian cruiseliner Costa Concordia – a frequent visitor to Malta – ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, leaving at least three people dead and forcing some 4,200 people onboard to be evacuated to the nearby island of Giglio.

It was like a scene from Titanic

Italian officials said the death toll could rise, with 41 people still unaccounted for yesterday evening. However, they cautioned that the passenger list may not have been up-to-date and some unaccounted for passengers were thought to be sheltering with local residents in their homes.

Coast guard vessels spent the day searching the waters around the ship as it lay on its side, while divers performed a painstaking search of the submerged decks.

Emergency services said about 40 people were wounded, including two seriously, with concussion and spinal injuries.

A spokesman for SMS, local agents for Costa Cruises, said the company had not booked any Maltese passengers on the cruise.

The three confirmed victims – two French passengers and one Peruvian crewman – are believed to have died after jumping into the sea in panic as the ship began to list. It was reported that one of the victims was an elderly Frenchman who died of a heart attack in the icy waters.

The Concordia had set off in mild weather from Rome earlier that day on a Mediterranean cruise, with scheduled calls in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

Passengers reported that tragedy struck as dinner was being served on the evening of Friday 13 – a date synonymous with ill fortune.

Passenger Mara Parmegiani told ANSA: “It was like a scene from the Titanic,” in a reference to the ‘unsinkable’ passenger liner that was downed by an iceberg in the Atlantic 100 years ago, with the loss of 1,517 lives.

The Italian coastguard released a statement saying the 290-metre-cruise ship began taking on water at around 8 p.m.

Orders were given to abandon ship and passengers and crew attempted to evacuate the stricken vessel in lifeboats, with some opting to swim roughly 400 metres to shore.

An evacuation drill had been scheduled for yesterday afternoon and some passengers complained to the media that the crew failed togive adequate instructions on how to evacuate.

Helicopters from the coastguard, navy and air force took turns attempting to airlift the remaining survivors who were unable to evacuate the ship as it listed so severely they could not launch the lifeboats. Evacuees were given refuge in schools, hotels, homes and a church on Giglio. Most have now been moved to the mainland.

Photographs showed a huge gash in the hull more than 50 metres wide. The coastguard said although it was too early to know exactly what happened, they suspected the incident was a result of the ship sailing too close to an obstacle like a reef. A large rock could be seen inside the vessel.

Italian prosecutors detained the captain of the ship yesterday evening after questioning him for several hours, ANSA news agency reported.

Earlier captain Francesco Schettino had told Italian television that the vessel had hit a rocky spur while cruising in waters which, according to the charts, should have been safe.

The Costa Concordia was scheduled to call at Malta every Friday from March to November this year. The €450 million ship last visited the island two months ago.

An SMS spokesman confirmed that Maltese passengers had booked to sail aboard the Costa Concordia later this year, but it was too early to say what would happen to these bookings.

“We are waiting for an official announcement from Costa Cruises. They may be able to salvage the ship or they might provide a replacement. We just don’t know at this stage,” he said.

He acknowledged that the tragedy may affect bookings in the short term but stressed that cruise holidays were still very safe.

Jennifer Grech, who sails every year with Costa Cruises and had sailed on the Concordia in 2006, told The Sunday Times she was in total shock when she saw the news.

She recalled that safety provisions on board the Concordia had seemed adequate, “but performing a drillis one thing, facing real-life panic is a different story”.

The incident will not deter her from sailing with Costa again, however.

Fact box

• Entered service in 2006.
• Built by Fincantieri near Venice for €450 million.
• Length of 290 metres.
• Capacity for 3,780 passengers in 1,500 cabins.
• Facilities include spa, four pools, seven restaurants, 13 bars, sports pitch, theatre, casino, cinema and disco.