OTTAWA - A dozen Canadians who were on board a luxury cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy are safe.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Claude Rochon says based on information currently available, 12 Canadians were on the ship and they are well and accounted for.
Three bodies have been recovered from the sea after the Costa Concordia with 4,234 people aboard ran aground hundreds of metres off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday.
Italian officials are matching names on the cruise ship's list of passengers and crew with those of survivors and say the number of the unaccounted for has dropped to roughly 40.
Italian media report that the captain of a cruise liner has been detained while he is investigated on allegations of manslaughter and abandoning his ship.
Some passengers complained the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and later delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.
