- Agency Report
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among the six people missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning.
The 56m (183ft) vessel was carrying 22 people – 10 crew and 12 passengers – including British, American and Canadian nationals. Emergency services rescued 15 people, including a one-year-old British girl.
Local media reported the yacht, sailing under the name Bayesian, sank after encountering a heavy storm overnight that caused waterspouts, or rotating columns of air, to appear over the sea.
Mr Lynch, known by some as “the British Bill Gates”, co-founded software company Autonomy, which was laterbought by tech giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn (£8.6bn).
Witnesses told Italian news agency Ansa that the Bayesian’s anchor was down when the storm struck, causing the mast to break and the ship to lose its balance and sink.
A waterspout is similar to a tornado and can form over oceans, seas or large lakes.
Divers have identified a wreckage 50m below the water’s surface and are searching for those missing.
BBC Verify has looked at corporate records and found that Bayesian is tied to his wife, Angela Bacares.
Sources close to the matter have confirmed to the BBC Ms Bacares has been rescued.
The body of one man has been found outside of the wreckage. His nationality has not been confirmed.
Fifteen people managed to get to safety after the storm hit.
Ansa news agency reported a 35-year-old mother held her one-year-old daughter in her arms in the sea.
The woman, only named as Charlotte, said: “For two seconds I lost the little girl in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amidst the fury of the waves.
“I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming.
“Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board.”
The baby is fine and the mother was treated with stitches, the agency added.
In the initial aftermath, a nearby Dutch-flagged vessel rescued survivors from the waves, tending to them until emergency services arrived.
Captain Karsten Borner said after the storm had passed, the crew noticed that the yacht that had been behind them had disappeared.
“We saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position, and we found this life raft drifting,” he told Reuters.
That life raft was carrying 15 survivors, three of whom were “heavily injured”, he said.
A local fisherman told Reuters news agency he had seen people being rescued by an inflatable boat dispatched from another yacht.
The captain of a local fishing trawler said he saw debris, including cushions from the deck, floating in the sea.
Footage from the wreckage site showed helicopters circling over several coastguard vessels as divers wearing bright orange descended into the water.
Eight of those rescued are receiving treatment in hospital, the Italian coastguard said.BBC