Pre-trial hearing on Costa Concordia held in Italy

The court-appointed experts will now spend months examining the evidence.

At least 30 people are believed to have died when the ship struck rocks off the Tuscan coast on 13 January.

Captain Francesco Schettino denies accusations of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all those aboard were evacuated.

He did not attend the hearing, in the town of Grosseto.

Schettino's brother-in-law has said that the captain is feeling both depressed and scared as he watches the inquiry unfold from his home in the town of Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, and that the deaths of those who did not survive are weighing heavily upon him.

His lawyer Bruno Leporatti added that Schettino was "stunned" by the accident.

The hearing took place in a theatre in Grosseto which has been turned into a temporary courtroom. Relatives of the victims, survivors and lawyers attended. No journalists or members of the public were allowed to attend.

Evidence and testimony amassed since the crash, including recordings from the ship's "black box," was handed over to the panel - made up of two naval experts and two academics.

The ship, carrying 4,200 passengers and crew, had its hull ripped open when it hit rocks in darkness, just hours into a Mediterranean cruise.