Costa Concordia: amateur video shows terror aboard [VIDEO]

The tales of terror and horror are heart-rending, and they can only be described as reminiscent of the movie "Titanic," a dramatization to be certain, but the real-life drama that was the story of the cruise ship Costa Concordia after it ran aground off the Italian coast.

The ship ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Friday, tearing a more than 150-foot-long gash in the hull. It then keeled over.

Ironically, the incident occurred overnight, on Friday the 13th, running into Saturday the 14th depending on your local time zone. An estimated 3,200 passengers were aboard, and 1,000 crew members. NBC News reported on Saturday morning that the U.S. Embassy estimated that about 100 Americans were aboard the Costa Concordia.

Authorities are still attempting to determine the actual number of deaths in the incident. At the time of this report, it has been reported that three people have been confirmed dead. There are a number of people still missing, although at first authorities said all were accounted for. Currently, it appears that about 70 people are still missing. [Update: the death toll has been raised to five.]

Reminiscent of the dramatized version of "Titanic," at least some crew members appeared to panic --- at the very least, they did not give passengers calm instructions on how to leave the sinking ship. Passengers complained that the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate. In addition, once the nature of the emergency became clear, the crew delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released, also reminiscent of the movie.

Tales of despair and terror, some heartrending, were given by survivors in the aftermath of the incident. Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles who was traveling with her sister and parents on the first of two cruises around the Mediterranean spoke of a moment when an Argentinean couple handed her their 3-year-old daughter, hoping she could save her when they could not.

"He said 'take my baby,'" Mrs. Ananias said, covering her mouth with her hand as she teared up. "I grabbed the baby. But then I was being pushed down. I didn't want the baby to fall down the stairs. I gave the baby back. I couldn't hold her," she added. "I thought that was the end and I thought they should be with their baby," she said. "I wonder where they are," [Ananias' own] daughter Valerie whispered.

According to Italian media, some crew members have already spoken out, and said that the ship was "too close to the coast." A source familiar with the ongoing investigation said the ship was following the "wrong route." Spokesman for AGI, harbor master Lieutenant Commander Emilio Santos said "There are no defined shipping lanes on that stretch of sea."

This is the second fatal accident involving a Costa ship in the past two years. In February of 2010, the Costa Europa collided with a pier in Egypt, resulting in the death of three crewmembers.

Update: The captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino has been arrested, police said Saturday. He is being investigated for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.

A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille claim they saw the Schettino, covered in a blanket, abandon the sinking cruise ship on a lifeboat. Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.said, “The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off. Normally the commander should leave at the end.”

Schettino strongly denied the accusation. He told Italian news channel Tgcom24, “We were the last to leave the ship."

Update 2: Italian state television reported that rescue workers found two people still alive on the Costa Concordia cruise ship. Those two people were rescued, more than 24 hours after the initial capsize. A third person, a crewman with a broken leg, has also been rescued.

An amateur video, embedded below, shows the terror experienced by passengers as they tried to abandon the sinking cruise ship.

You can watch a video report embedded below.

Watch the description of survivors of the evacuation, below.

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Image Source: Video Capture

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