A COURT has refused to lift the house arrest on the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise   ship that ran aground off a Tuscan island last month.

The court in Florence also rejected a request from prosecutors to change the house arrest to jail for Francesco Schettino.

Another from Schettino himself to be freed was dismissed.

Schettino commanded the ship with 4,200 people that ran aground off the island of Giglio on January 13.

He is being investigated for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated. Seventeen people are confirmed killed in the January 13 shipwreck, with 15 more still missing.