Rome - The bodies of a young French couple and three German tourists on board the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship have been formally identified, local authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.
Officials also identified the bodies of a five-year-old Italian girl, Dayana, and her father Williams Arlotti.
The corpses were recovered earlier and were among the 32 people believed to have died in the January 13 tragedy.
The families of the French couple, 25-year-old Michael Blemand and 23-year-old Mylene Litzler, have been in Italy for weeks awaiting news of their loved ones and visiting the scene of the disaster on Giglio Island.
In a last text message to their families sent the night of the disaster, Blemand and Litzler said they had put on their life jackets and were boarding a lifeboat.
Their relatives have said they cannot understand what happened and have voiced frustration with the lengthy process of identifying the bodies.
The three German victims were identified as Elisabeth Bauer, Brunhild Werp and Margrit Schroeter, according to a statement from the prefecture in Grosseto, the town closest to Giglio, where an investigation is under way.
Eight people are still officially reported as missing, including three Germans, an American couple, two Italians and an Indian crew member.
The 24 identified so far are nine Germans, six French, five Italians, two Peruvians, one Hungarian and one Spaniard.
The Costa Concordia crashed into rocks off the island with 4 229 people on board from dozens of countries. It ran aground and keeled over, prompting a panicked evacuation in which dozens of people threw themselves into the sea.
Nine people are under investigation for manslaughter, including captain Francesco Schettino, who is also accused of abandoning ship before everyone on board could be evacuated.
Three of those being investigated are executives from the ship owner, Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator.
- AFP/IOL
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