Titanic: 'Haunting' new footage of shipwreck released

"Haunting" rare footage of the shipwreck of the Titanic, filmed back in 1986, has been released.

More than 1,500 people died when the Belfast-built ship sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912.

The iconic vessel struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic and sank within hours.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has now released over an hour of rare footage of the wreck.

It was taken during an exploration by a three-person team on a submersible named Alvin in July 1986.

The WHOI is based in Massachusetts in the United States.

According to the institution, most of the footage released has never been seen by the public before.

The wreck of the Titanic was initially found by Dr Robert Ballard from WHOI and a French team in 1985.

Their exploration in September 1985 found the ship lying at a depth of 2.5 miles (4km) around 370 miles (595km) off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada.

Dr Ballard later said the search was actually a front for a hunt ordered by President Ronald Reagan to find two lost Cold War submarines.

In July 1986, a team from the WHOI returned to the Titanic and it is around 80 minutes of footage from that expedition that has been released.

Dr Ballard was also part of the 1986 team.

In an interview with the Associated Press, he said that the footage of the Titanic they captured in 1986 was "haunting".

A second remotely operated vessel, Jason Jr, was also part of the dive and some of the footage being released was taken by that vessel.

It was able to go inside the wreck while the team in Alvin explored the exterior of the ship.

Footage taken by Jason Jr includes officers cabins and the promenade of the Titanic.

According to the initial footage released by WHOI on its YouTube channel, there were 11 dives to the Titanic in all in 1986.