Three people were confirmed dead and 40 were injured after a luxury cruise liner carrying over 4,200 passengers ran aground off the Italian coast on Friday night, local media reported on Saturday.

Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground is seen off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island, Jan 14, 2012. [Photo/China Daily via Agencies]

The 290-meter-long Costa Concordia reportedly hit a rock and listed 80 grades near the Tuscan coast in central Italy at the beginning of a seven-day cruise in the Mediterranean.

The coastal guard confirmed three passengers were dead and 40 were injured, including two seriously-wounded. Some other 70 were still missing but they may have taken refuge on the nearby Isola del Giglio, a resort island 25 km off the country's western coast.

There was a 70-meter hole in the ship and investigations were already underway over the accident, according to the ANSA news agency.

"The cruise liner was on a wrong route," a source was quoted by the ANSA as saying. "The investigation just started will determine whether the accident was due to a human error, or a faulty of on-board devices or the combination of the two," the source said.

Many passengers told local media the crew had failed to give exact instructions on how to leave the ship.

"We were having dinner late in the evening on Friday, when we heard a loud boom and tableware begun falling down. We were told the ship had suffered electrical problems, and asked to go back to our cabins. Had we done so, we would have died," a passenger told the ANSA.

"The captain was trying to reassure us, then we boarded lifeboats, but the crew was absolutely unable to manage them. The one I was inside had even to change the driver," said Mara Parmegiani Alfonsi, a journalist on board.

Hundreds of passengers were accommodated in hotels, schools and a church on Isola del Giglio, but most have been moved to the mainland, according to the ANSA.

The owner of the ship Costa Cruises said in a statement it could not determine yet what had caused the accident.