Costa Concordia wreck refloating given green light

2014-07-12 1

The wreckage from the Costa Concordia cruise ship is finally set to be moved.

It's been two and a half years since it sank near the Italian island of Giglio, killing 32 people.

Authorities said the ship is scheduled to be refloated on Monday -- an operation which is expected to take six or seven days.

Then it will be towed to the northern port of Genoa to be scrapped.

Residents of the tiny island, which depends on tourism, welcomed the news.

(SOUNDBITE) (Italian) GIGLIO RESIDENT AND FERRY WORKER, ITALO ARIENTI, SAYING:

"I am happy they are taking it away because to see a ship like that always there, with the deaths that happened, it gives us the shivers."

SOUNDBITE) (Italian) GIGLIO RESIDENT, FRANCA MELIS, SAYING:

"It's a liberation. Finally. It's a liberation because it's about time that it goes away. We know very well what the Island has gone through over these last two and a half years - for better or worse - now it's got to go away, a