The world's media turned up to the island of Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany, on September 16 to watch the refloating of the Costa Concordia cruse liner.

The operation began by parbuckling the ship, a technique which uses steel cables to rotate the vessel, which was left stricken on its side, half submerged and stranded on a reef after the accident on January 1, 2012.

This is the largest engineering operation of its kind ever conducted, because of the size of the wreck (289m long) and the estimated cost of €600m.

The ship was wrecked after hitting a rock, in a disaster that left 30 people dead and two missing. Its captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial for manslaughter.

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