The search for British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter continues after a luxury yacht sank in a tornado off the coast of Sicily. Mr Lynch and his daughter Hannah are among six tourists missing after the yacht, named Bayesian, was battered during intense storms off the coast of Palermo in the early hours of Monday morning. A body, believed to be that of the vessel’s cook, has been found and police divers are trying to reach the hull of the ship, which is resting at a depth of 50 metres.
Four of the missing passengers are British and two are American, Italian news website la Repubblica stated. Sicily’s civil protection agency told the BBC that 18-year-old Hannah Lynch was among those missing with her father, along with the yacht’s chef, Ricardo Thomas. The yacht was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers.
Fifteen people including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued, according to local media. The British-flagged superyacht capsized at about 5am local time on Monday morning off the coast of Palermo when the area was hit by a tornado. Mr Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was made an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006.
In June, he was cleared of conducting a massive fraud relating to an 11 billion dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard. A spokesperson for Mr Lynch said there was no comment.
The yacht sank as a fierce storm battered the area overnight. The daily Il Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported th.