Concordia to be broken up for scrap

[GIGLIO, Italy] The wreck of the luxury liner Costa Concordia was refloated on Monday and will soon be towed away and broken up for scrap, more than two years after it capsized off the Italian coast, killing 32 people.

The 290 m Costa Concordia ran aground on rocks near the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio in January 2012. The rusting hulk of the once gleaming white ship had been resting on a temporary platform since being righted a year ago.

In what has become one of the largest salvage operations in history, air was pumped into 30 large metal boxes, or sponsons, attached around the hull of the 114,500 tonne ship. The air forced out the water in the sponsons, lifting the vessel more than two metres off the underwater platform.