Video: Inside the wreckage of the Costa Concordia

Italian police have released footage from inside the sunken Costa Concordia cruise liner that sank off the coast of Isola del Giglio in January 2012 and has remained there ever since.

The footage was taken days before an historic attempt to refloat the 114,500-tonne vessel and tow it away from the Italian island.

Police divers explored the wreck of the £500 million luxury liner and filmed evidence of debris and dilapidation from the ship's two-and-a-half-years spent under water.

However, many elements of the furnishings and interior decor from the high-end commercial vessel remain eerily well-preserved and personal items abandoned by desperate passengers were seen strewn around the wreckage.

Salvage workers now face the challenge of refloating the 950-foot long vessel, which has already been raised from the rocky seabed in a complex and costly operation that took place last year.

They are expected to spend around five days towing it the 150 miles to Genoa, where it will be dismantled and made into scrap.

The 2012 tragedy claimed 32 lives, while a salvage diver died while working on the wreckage in February this year.

Costa Concordia's captain Francesco Schettino is accused of causing the incident by showboating for onlookers on the island, who are used to ships doing a "sail past" as they near the coast.

He is accused of running the ship aground by performing the sail past too close to rocks, while he claims he was observing maps given to him by the ship's operator that did not display the rocks.

The case is still being heard at a court in Tuscany.

Watch: Footage from inside the ship moments before it sank: