The bodies of five more passengers have been found in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia taking the confirmed death toll to 11.

 

Four men and one woman, in their 50s and 60s, were discovered together at the front of the cruise liner below the waterline. It comes after Italian navy divers set off explosives to create openings in the hull of the ship that ran aground near a Tuscan island on Friday.

Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero said micro-charges placed on the side of the ship created four openings to allow divers 'to enter easily for the search'.

 

Extensive debris and the 'sideways' nature of the ship has hampered rescuers from getting into sections of the stricken vessel. The holes were made both above and below the water level. Television footage showed them to be less than 6ft in diameter.

 

Mr Busonero said the rescuers were racing against time. The tragedy has turned into a potential environmental crisis as rough seas battering the stricken ship raised fears that fuel might leak into the pristine waters around Giglio island.

 

The Italian operator of the Costa Concordia has accused the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, who is in custody, of causing the accident, saying he made an 'unapproved, unauthorised manoeuvre' to divert the vessel from its programmed course.

Earlier, authorities had said 16 people were missing. But Italian coastguard official Marco Brusco said last night that 25 passengers and four crew members were still unaccounted for four days after the ship struck a reef and capsized.

 

Mr Brusco did not explain the reason for the rise, but at least three Italian families have said that even though their loved ones have been listed among those safely evacuated, they hadn't heard any word from their relatives.

 

Mr Brusco also said about ten Germans and two Americans were among the 29 missing.

 

He said there was still 'a glimmer of hope' that there could be survivors on parts of the vast liner that have yet to be searched.

The last survivor, a crewman who had broken his leg, was rescued on Sunday.

 

The name of another missing person has also been revealed - 30-year-old honeymooner Maria D'Introno, of Biella near Turin, who had been on the ship with husband Vincenzo Rosselli and other family members to celebrate their marriage.

 

All apart from Maria reached the safety of the shore by jumping into the water and swimming to a nearby headland while wearing life jackets.

 

Vincenzo said: 'The main thing on my mind as we were swimming towards the shore was for my 74-year-old father who has a problem with his hip. We all had life jackets but Maria couldn't swim and she was scared of the water.'

 

The partially-sunken liner slipped further into the sea during high winds yesterday and is now lying on its side in about 45ft of water.

There are fears that the precariously-perched vessel could break completely free from its rocky ledge at any moment and plummet hundreds of feet to the bottom of the Mediterranean.

 

There are also concerns that, if the vessel shifts even slightly, it could puncture its fuel tanks.

 

Despite the threat of imminent catastrophe, rescue workers resumed their search for the 29 passengers still unaccounted for, trawling through the ship's maze of corridors and cabins.

COSTA CONCORDIA'S VICTIMS:

Missing - 29

William Arlotti, 34, and daughter Dyana, 5, - from Rimini, Italy

Honeymooner Maria D'Introno, 30, of Biella near Turin

Erika Soria - Peruvian crew member, 26

Russell Rebello - Indian crew member, 30

Jerry and Barbara Heil, from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, U.S.

Frenchman Francis Servel, 71, who handed his wife Nicole, 61, his lifejacket

* 14 Germans, 6 Italians, 4 French, 2 Americans, One each from India, Peru and Hungary

 Dead - 6

Giovanni Masia - 86 - from Italy

Guillermo Gual - 68 - from Spain

Peruvian crew member Tomas Costilla Mendoza

Two, as yet unnamed, French passengers

Unidentified man found on Monday morning

* These are only the people who have been named by Italian authorities.

The emergency services confirmed that all the areas of the liner that are above water had now been searched.

A five-year-old Italian girl Dyana Arlotti, and her father William, 34, from Rimini, are believed to be among those still missing.

Dyana's mother, Susy Albertini told Italian newspaper Voce di Romagna: 'I have made hundreds of phone calls to my ex-husband, but he does not respond.

'I called all the authorities, the Police Prefecture to the Marina di Grosseto, the fire department, but nobody can tell me anything about my daughter.

'The last time I saw Dyana was Thursday morning. I took her to kindergarten.

'In the evening her father picked her up. It is not the first time she has gone with her father on a cruise.

'I heard there were problems on the ship on Saturday morning from his parents.

'Meanwhile, I continue to call everyone and no one can tell me anything about my daughter.'

Mr Arlotti's cousin, Sabrina Ottaviani, posted an appeal on Facebook which said: 'My cousin and little niece are still missing. They slid into the water in a corridor between muster point A and B.

'Someone told his girlfriend that they were pulled up by rope but there is no trace of them... if someone truly saw them on the rope please let me know.'

Miss Albertini's mother, Alberta Sartini, added: 'We are waiting for news, we are on tenterhooks.

'My daughter had trusted to give the child to her former husband and the child was happy to go on a cruise with him. I hope with all my heart they come back.'

Those confirmed dead include two French passengers and Peruvian crew member Tomas Costilla Mendoza. Two men, 86-year-old Italian Giovanni Masia and Spaniard Guillermo Gual, 68, were discovered at an emergency gathering point near the restaurant.

The sixth victim was a man, found in a corridor in the part of the ship that was still above water, who was wearing his orange lifejacket.

 

Two Americans on their 'holiday of a lifetime' are among those still unaccounted for. Gerald and Barbara Heil, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, were confirmed as missing by their daughter.

 

And Pervuian tourism student Peruvian Erika Soria, 26, who was working on the ship, is also missing. Her father Saturnino told Pervuian TV: 'My concern is that the authorities intensify their search and find my daughter wherever she is.

 

'She has to be found, dead or alive. The pain of not knowing what's happened to her is killing us. I haven't given up hope of seeing her alive again.'

 

Rising turbulence this morning led to concerns that the ship - which has on board some 2,500 tons of fuel - could become unstable, creating the threat of a possible environmental disaster on top of the human loss.