Italian police have detained the captain of the cruise ship that ran aground near the island of Giglio, as rescue teams continued to search the waters for the missing on Saturday evening.
Francesco Schettino was taken into custody after being questioned by investigators trying to establish the cause of the accident, news agency ANSA reported.
Italian coast guard officials have confirmed that at least three people are dead and around 40 are still missing after the Costa Concordia cruise ship, carrying approximately 4,000 people, ran aground and keeled over on Friday evening. Among the dead is a Peruvian crewman and two French passengers, one believed to be a man in his 70s who possibly suffered a heart attack after jumping into the sea.
With search and rescue operations set to continue overnight, an earlier estimate suggesting that 70 people were unaccounted for was revised, officials said. ANSA has reported that 40 passengers were receiving hospital treatment. Rescue workers, meanwhile, had located two people alive in the wreckage of the capsized ship.
The vessel was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it apparently hit a reef just as guests were sitting down for dinner.
