Three more bodies found in Costa Concordia wreck

Grim discovery brings the total number of bodies recovered to 28

The latest grim discovery brings the total number of bodies recovered to 28 (GETTY IMAGES)

The team searching for bodies in the wreck of the capsized cruise liner, the Costa Concordia, have found three more bodies more than two months after the ship capsized off Italy.

The latest grim discovery brings the total number of bodies recovered to 28.

Four further people are still classed as missing and are presumed dead.

Franco Gabrielli, Civil Protection agency chief, did not say what the gender or ages of the people found today were, and it was not clear where their bodies were located within the ship.

The 114,000-ton luxury cruise liner was carrying 4,200 passengers when it capsized after hitting rocks off the island of Giglio in January.

The captain of the ship Francesco Schettino was arrested a day after the accident and stands accused of manslaughter.

He has admitted sailing too close to the island and is presently held under house arrest near Naples.

Identifying those who died on the ship has proven difficult and eight bodies were still awaiting official identification before today's discovery.

The bodies are badly decomposed after weeks in the water, and authorities are having to resort to using DNA to identify them.

Among those still missing, or currently unidentified, are several passengers - including a couple from the US, and one Indian crew member.

The waters where the Concordia capsized are a protected sea sanctuary and in an attempt to protect the waters from pollution salvage teams have been removing fuel since the beginning of February.

Rough seas and bad weather have hampered attempts to both remove fuel and search for remaining bodies.