Search for body to follow Costa Concordia removal

GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy (AP) — An Italian official has promised that a search will be conducted for the only unrecovered body of the 32 Costa Concordia shipwreck victims as soon as the wrecked cruise liner is towed away from the island where it struck a reef in 2012.

Franco Gabrielli, who heads the Civil Protection Department overseeing the wreck’s removal, also told reporters on Giglio Island Sunday that while weather conditions aren’t optimal, they are good enough to permit the start of operations to refloat and tow the Concordia to Genoa on the mainland for scrapping.

Gabrielli said it was a “great sorrow” the body of an Indian waiter was never found.

Delicate removal operations will start early Monday and last several days. A daring engineering operation set the capsized Concordia upright last year.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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