An official report into the Costa Concordia disaster has blamed Capt Francesco Schettino for the sinking of the ship.

Some 32 people died during the accident in January this year, when the vessel sunk off the Island of Giglio on the Italian coast.

However, the report also found fault with the operator of the ship, Costa.

Capt Schettino was blamed for a risky maneuver which ended when the ship ran aground.

He now stands accused of shipwreck, manslaughter and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.

The report, sections of which have been leaked to Italian newspapers, also said Roberto Ferrarini, fleet crisis coordinator at Costa, “seems not to have the pulse of the conditions of the ship”.

When the captain told him three sections of the vessel were flooded, “he should have immediately told the captain to abandon ship”, the report said.

However, the report finds “six minutes passed before Schettino announced a general emergency and around 27 minutes before he called for the ship to be abandoned”.

In defence, the firm said argues Schettino’s reports to headquarters were so delayed, partial and confused that it was very difficult to discern how serious the emergency was.