Russel Rebello and Maria Grazia Trecarichi
Costa Concordia wreckage missing victims Russel Rebello and Maria Grazia Trecarichi (Facebook)

Italian authorities said that divers have found human remains near the salvaged ocean liner Costa Concordia.

Scuba divers searching the area around the ship for the bodies of the two last missing victims of the shipwreck, Russel Rebello and Maria Grazia Trecarichi, said they discovered human bones near the fourth deck.

Franco Gabrielli, who headed the searching operation, said the finding was "almost miraculous".

Prosecutors form the Tuscan town of Grosseto have ordered DNA tests to confirm the identities of the remains.

Authorities have informed the families of Rebello and Trecarichi of the discovery.

Thirty-two people died when the Costa Concordia crashed into a reef, took on water and capsized off Giglio island in Tuscany in January 2012.

Rebello, a 33-year-old cruise waiter from India, was hailed a hero for saving lives before losing his own when the ship sank.

The married father-of-two had started working on the Costa Concordia just a few months before Captain Francesco Schettino's notorious "salute" to the island allegedly caused the ship to strike a reef and hole the starboard side.

Witnesses said that as Schettino abandoned ship, Rebello, a Mumbai native, stayed on to help other passengers to safety and even gave one his own lifejacket.

He was last seen as he made his way to a muster station at the restaurant at the back of the ship.

Trecarichi was on the cruiser to celebrate her 50th birthday with her 17-year-old daughter Stefania.

They had boarded different lifeboats because Trecarichi was cold and had gone below deck to fetch a jacket. Stefania survived.

Schettino is facing charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. At his trial in Grosseto the captain, who denies the charges, blamed Costa Concordia's Indonesian helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin for the disaster.