Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:18 PM ET
Content provided by AFP
Fears rose of an environmental disaster from a wrecked cruise ship in an area of outstanding natural beauty in Italy on Tuesday as emergency divers used explosives to breach the hull and try and reach trapped passengers.
“This is an ecological timebomb,” Sergio Ortelli, mayor of the picturesque Tuscan island where the luxury Costa Concordia liner hit underwater rocks and keeled over on Friday with more than 4,200 passengers and crew aboard.