PORTICELLO: Divers searched off the Italian island of Sicily Monday for six people missing after a superyacht sank during a sudden storm, killing at least one person, officials said.
The 56-metre-long luxury yacht had been moored off Porticello, east of Palermo, when violent winds and rains swept suddenly up the coast before dawn, tearing through beach clubs and little fishing ports.
"It was terrible. The boat was hit by really strong wind and shortly after it went down," a British survivor called Charlotte told ANSA news agency.
The Bayesian, flying the British flag, had 22 people aboard, including 10 crew members, the coast guard said. The majority of those aboard were British, according to Italian media.
Survivor Charlotte said her young daughter had nearly drowned.
"For two seconds I lost her in the sea, then I grabbed her again. I held her tightly to me, while the sea raged. Lots of people were screaming," she was quoted as saying.
She managed to climb aboard a lifeboat, she said.
The yacht was anchored some 700 metres from the Porticello port when it was struck by a waterspout, which roughly resembles a mini tornado over a body of water.
"I saw the boat, it just had one mast, it was really big. I saw it suddenly sink," fisherman Pietro Asciutto told ANSA news agency.
Once dubbed the British "Bill Gates", tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is among those missing Monday after the boat sank off the coast of Sicily in a sudden storm.
The 59-year-old businessman — who was only acquitted weeks ago in the US after facing massive fraud charges — was reportedly with colleagues on board the luxury vessel moored off the coast of Porticello, east of Palermo.
His wife, Angela Bacares, was among the 15 people rescued, but his daughter Hannah is among the six missing, Salvo Cocina, head of the Civil Protection Agency in Sicily, told AFP.
Originally from Suffolk in east England, Lynch was a former advisor to two British prime ministers and once a star entrepreneur who seemed to represent a rare tech British success story.
The businessman has a fortune of $648 million according to the latest Sunday Times "Rich List".
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