ROME — Italian prosecutors are investigating seven more people over last month's Costa Concordia cruise tragedy including executives of operator Costa Crociere, a company spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, and first officer Ciro Ambrosio, are already being investigated on suspicion of multiple counts of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.

Another four ship officers and three executives from Costa Crociere, Europe's top cruise operator, are now also being investigated and face charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and failure to communicate with maritime authorities.

The liner crashed on the Italian island of Giglio with 4,229 passengers and crew from 60 countries on board on the night of January 13.

Thirty-two people are believed to have died although not all the bodies have been recovered. Several decomposing bodies were found on Wednesday.

"We have received seven formal notifications — four for officers on board, three for company employees on land," said Costa Crociere spokesman Davide Barbano, without giving details on the identities of those being investigated.

Costa Crociere said in a statement: "We have full confidence in the work of prosecutors. We have offered complete co-operation and we are certain that the professionalism and capacity of the company will be confirmed."

In leaked transcripts of his questioning by investigators, Schettino has said Costa Crociere was aware of the scale of the disaster early on, but the company has indicated that he deliberately misled executives by phone.