The wreckage of the Italian cruise ship the Costa Concordia is being towed to its home port of Genoa on Wednesday morning to be scrapped.

The towing operation from the island where it sank was delayed in recent days by rough seas.

Over the previous week it was gradually lifted from an undersea platform after being brought upright last September in one of the biggest salvage operations in maritime history.

Thirty-two people died when the cruise liner struck the Tuscan island of Giglio in January, 2012.

The body of an Indian waiter, Russel Rebello, has still not been found.

The ship’s captain Francesco Schettino is on trial, where he denies charges of manslaughter, sailing too close to the shore and abandoning ship.

One survivors’ group has described the Costa Concordia’s departure for Genoa as an important symbolic moment for those who were on board.