At least three people have died after a luxury cruise ship ran aground off the Italian coast in an accident which forced the coast guard to evacuate more than 4,000 people to safety, media reports say.

The 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it "hit an obstacle" near the island of Giglio off the coast of Tuscany late on Friday, a coast guard official told the Associated Press news agency.

Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports.