Images from the Italian island of Giglio, where salvage crews raised the Costa Concordia cruise liner on Tuesday, completing one of the most difficult and expensive wreck recovery projects ever performed.

In a 19-hour operation which ended at 4.00 a.m. (0200 GMT), the 114,500 ship was pulled upright by a series of huge jacks and cables and left resting in 30 metres of water on underwater platforms drilled into the rocky sea bed.

The success of the operation was announced in a brief statement by the head of Italy's Civil Protection Authority Franco Gabrielli and dozens of locals, who have lived with the wreck for over a year, came out to cheer the salvage crews.