A hunt is on for six missing people after one person was found dead following a luxury yacht capsizing off the coast of Sicily.
The 160-foot luxury boat called the ‘Bayesian’ had 22 people on board – 12 of whom were passengers and 10 crew members – when it was hit by a violent storm at sunrise.
The yacht, which sails under the British flag, sank off the port of Porticello, the Italian Coast Guard said, leaving six people missing.
Among those unaccounted for are four Britons, two Americans, and one Canadian passenger, according to reports from the Guardian.
One person was found dead, while the remaining 15 people on board were rescued from the wreck, including the captain of the ship, an Italian Coast Guard spokesperson told CNN.
Eight of the people rescued, including a one-year-old child, were taken to local hospitals and all are in a stable condition according to Italian media.
A source told CNN that British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, the founder of software giant Autonomy, was among the passengers on board who is reportedly missing.
The yacht had been hit by a tornado at around 5AM on Monday while it was anchored about half a mile from the port of Porticello, according to a spokesperson for Italy’s Coast Guard.
The European Severe Weather Database reported that a small waterspout, one of several types of tornadoes, had developed over the area on Monday morning, while other strong storms brought torrential rainfall across Sicily late on Sunday, dumping more than 4 inches (100 mm) of rain in less than four hours in Brolo, east of Palermo.
The Italian fire brigade told press in a statement that divers had reached the yacht’s hull 49 meters (160 feet) below sea level and had also dispatched helicopters to help with the search.
One of the passengers on board, a 35-year-old woman called Charlotte, told reporters, as cited by Italian news agency ANSA that she had battled to hold on to her one-year-old daughter Sofia, as the boat sank.
She reportedly said: “In two seconds I lost the baby 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.”
The captain of a boat moored near the Bayesian told reporters, as cited by Reuters, that he had turned his engine on to avoid crashing into the yacht during the fierce storm.
He added: “This morning we got this strong gust and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position. After the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.”
The Bayesian had left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on August 14 and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening with the status of “at anchor”, according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.
