Salvage workers scouring the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that is lying stricken off the coast of Italy found eight more bodies on Wednesday.

The latest grisly discoveries bring the total number of confirmed dead from the January 13 disaster to 25, reported the Chicago Tribune, and included the bodies of a woman and a five-year-old girl. Seven people out of the more than 4,200 who boarded the ship remain unaccounted for.

After 18 days of desperate searching for survivors of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, Italian officials have been forced to pull out because of the risk to rescue workers.

Italy's Civil Protection agency made the announcement on Tuesday due to the unstable positioning of the ship’s massive hull creating too many safety concerns to continue, reported USAToday.com.

According to the statement, relatives and diplomatic officials representing the countries of the missing have been informed of the difficult decision.

As passengers desperately struggled to escape the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship, a group of rich Russians reportedly bribed crewmembers to get coveted spots on the life boats.

Italian officials are reportedly investigating whether expensively dressed Eastern Europeans stuffed handfuls of cash into the pockets of cruise line staff after the massive vessel hit a reef on January 13, reported the Sun.co.uk.

A resident who lives on the island of Giglio near where the ship capsized four miles off course has revealed that instead of seeing women, children and wounded when the first life boats reached dry land, she was shocked to come face-to-face with, "healthy men and elegant women in evening gowns who were speaking Russian," Franca Anichini told German media.