As icy seawater began to swamp the Costa Concordia, passengers desperately scrambled down ropes to safety

Passengers fought over lifeboats, a mother crawled up almost vertical corridors in pitch blackness with her daughter, and elderly couples sobbed as icy decks slipped under water.

A harrowing picture is emerging of the chaotic evacuation of more than 4,000 people from the luxury cruise ship that sank into the Mediterranean off the coast of Tuscany, killing at least three and leaving several others critically hurt.