A cruise ship crashed, many missing.

Some people were thrown into the sea when the Costa Concordia started listing, others jumped to evacuate the ship, officials said.

The ship, which reportedly cost more than $680 million, was three-quarters under water and sinking fast, a Giglio hotel clerk told NBC News on Saturday.

The Telegraph of London said some passengers jumped from the steeply listing ship and swam a short distance to the island. A photo showed the brightly lit ship teetering just outside a harbor wall.

One official said that among the dead was a man around age 65, who might have been ill or who might not have withstood the cold of the sea at night, Il Messagero said.

The 950-foot Costa Concordia had left the port of Savona at 7 p.m. local time and was sailing to Civitavecchia, its first port of call, when it ran aground around 9 p.m.

A rocky reef
Costa Cruises said 3,200 passengers were aboard, along with 1,023 crew members. Coast Guard Officials said the liner was listing at 20 degrees but was not in danger of sinking.
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Paolillo, the coast guard official, speaking from the port captain's office in the Tuscan port of Livorno, said the vessel "hit an obstacle" -- it wasn't clear if it might have hit a rocky reef in the waters off Giglio -- "ripping a gash 50 meters (165 feet) across" on the left side of the ship, and started taking on water.

The cruise liner's captain, Paolillo said, then tried to steer his ship toward shallow waters, near Giglio's small port, to make evacuation by lifeboat easier. But after the ship started listing badly onto its right side, lifeboat evacuation was no longer feasible, Paolillo said.

By 1:20 a.m. Saturday the evacuation of passengers and crew had been virtually completed. But Il Messaggero said about 200 remained on board and would have to be airlifted out by helicopters. The ship's worsening position was making it difficult to complete the evacuation, officials said.

Town officials were trying to find places for the evacuees to spend the night.