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According to reports, some of the ship's 4,000 passengers jumped into the sea and swam to shore as the vessel began to take on water.
Italian coastguard spokesman Francesco Paolillo confirmed that three bodies were retrieved from the sea. A loud boom interrupted the passengers' dinner on Friday night before a loud-speaker announcement initially claimed that the ship had suffered an electrical failure.
However, one passenger was certain that the problem was more severe.
"It was just like something out of the Titanic," she said.
"You could tell straight away that the ship had hit something and no way was it an electrical fault."Pictures of the vessel have shown a massive gash in the hull more than 150ft long, with a huge rock embedded in the side of the ship towards the stern.
Fabio Costa, who worked in one of the vessel's, said a number of people were jumping into the sea to swim ashore.
"We could only feel that the boat had hit something, we had no idea how serious it was until we got out and we looked through the window and we saw the water getting closer and closer. Everything happened really, really fast and we saw the water coming in."
"A lot of people were falling down the stairs and were hurt because things fell on them."
"We just saw a huge rock, that was probably where the ship hit, and people were having huge trouble trying to get on the lifeboats. So at that point we didn't know what to do so it took hours for people to get off the ship.
"It was easier for people to jump into the sea because we were on the same level as that water so some people pretty much just decided to swim as they were not able to get on the lifeboats."
The evacuation operation began immediately as the ship began to list to the right, with helicopters and local ferries drafted in to help.
After initially being taken to the small island of Giglio, all survivors have now been transported to Port Santo Stefano on the mainland.
The 1,500-cabin vessel hit a reef a few hundred metres from the Tuscan holiday island
It has been reported that 24 British tourists were onboard the Costa Concordia.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are in close contact with the local authorities and are working urgently to identify British nationals involved.
"A consular team from the British Embassy will shortly be in the area to provide consular assistance."
Elizabeth Nanni, of Giglio's tourist information, told BBC News that rescuers "think they have got everyone".
"There was talk at some point that people were trapped inside but I can't confirm that, I have no idea really," she added.
"Of course it always takes some time to organise a rescue in these cases and it was a big shock to everyone.
"The boat was listing and everyone tried to pull together - this island has about 700 residents here so receiving 4,200 was quite a shock, even for us.
"So we tried to put them in churches and schools and in the tourist office I housed about 100 people in two rooms."
