8 Bulgarians Were on Board Wrecked Cruise Ship in Italy

The Costa Concordia cruise ship is pictured listing just off the island of Giglio, northern Italy, early 14 January 2012, after she ran ground in the early hours of the morning. EPA/BGNES

There were 8 Bulgarian citizens on board the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran ashore off the Tuscany coast in Italy Saturday, and none of them was injured.

One of them was a passenger, the other seven were members of the crew, announced Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Vesela Cherneva.

Earlier the Bulgarian consul in Rome said for the BGNES news agency that there was a yet undisclosed number of Bulgarians on board the vessel.

Three persons have perished after the crash, and 70 more are considered missing, as Italian authorities are evacuating the more than 4,000 people on board.

The people who were killed in the incident were a Peruvian and two French citizens, according to local authorities.

Most of the passengers and crew of the luxury cruise ship have been rescued, but around 40 of them are reported injured, some of them gravely.

The Costa Concordia ship ran aground in shallows meters away from the Tuscany Giglio Island.

This led to a capsizing of the large vessel, after a 70 meter hole formed in the body of the ship, filling it with water.

Authorities have said they still hope that the cruise ship will not sink, but that is not certain.

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