The man at the centre of the investigation into the Italian cruise ship disaster, Captain Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest after appearing in court.
He is widely blamed for the incident and faces possible manslaughter charges along with being accused of abandoning ship before all his passengers and crew scrambled to safety. But his lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, is mounting a robust defence. "The captain claims he controlled the boat after the impact. In his opinion, and it's not only his opinion, the way he acted contributed to saving hundreds or even thousands of human lives," he said. With no survivors found since Sunday those confirmed dead now number 11 with at least 23 still missing. As the areas above water have now mostly been checked, rescue teams are being spurred on by hope rather than certainty of finding any one alive. Coast Guard Commander Cosimo Nicastro said: "The plan is to keep searching, to keep looking for people and we think that in the same area where we found five people today is the place where it's more possible that we can find other people." But with increasingly choppy seas it is feared the ship could slip off the undersea ledge where its perched making further searches dangerous.
Source: Euronews
