British tech tycoon Mike Lynch among those missing after luxury yacht sinks

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among six people missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily early Monday morning.

The 56m (183ft) boat was carrying 22 people – 10 crew and 12 passengers – including British, American and Canadian citizens. Emergency services rescued 15 people, including a one-year-old British girl.

Local media reported that the cruise ship named Bayesian sank after encountering a huge storm last night that caused waterspouts or rotating columns of air to appear in the sea.

Mr Lynch, dubbed by some as the “British Bill Gates”, co-founded software company Autonomy, which later was bought by tech giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn (£8.6bn).

Witnesses told Italian news agency Ansa that the Bayesian’s anchor fell off as the storm hit, causing the mast to break and the ship to lose balance and sink.

Waterspouts are similar to tornadoes and can form over oceans, seas, or large lakes.

Divers have located the wreckage of the plane 50m below the surface of the water and are searching for the missing people.

BBC Verify looked into company records and discovered that Bayesian is linked to his wife, Angela Bacares.

Sources close to the matter have confirmed to the BBC that Ms Bacares has been rescued.

The body of a man was found outside the rubble. His nationality has not yet been confirmed.

Fifteen people were evacuated to safety after the storm hit.

Ansa news agency reported that a 35-year-old mother was holding her one-year-old daughter in her arms in the sea.

The woman, named only as Charlotte, said: “For two seconds I lost my little girl in the sea, then I immediately held her tight in the midst of the raging waves.

“I held her close, close to me, while the sea was rough. Many people were screaming.

“Luckily, the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us got on board.”

The baby is fine and the mother has had her wound stitched, the agency added.

After the accident, a nearby Dutch-flagged ship rescued survivors from the waves, caring for them until rescuers arrived.

Captain Karsten Borner said that after the storm passed, the crew noticed that the yacht behind them had disappeared.

“We saw a red flame so the first mate and I went to that location and found this life raft drifting,” he told Reuters.

The life raft was carrying 15 survivors, three of whom were “seriously injured,” he said.

A local fisherman told Reuters news agency he witnessed people being rescued by an inflatable boat dispatched from another yacht.

The captain of a local fishing boat said he saw debris, including mattresses from the ship’s deck, floating in the sea.

Footage from the scene of the crash showed helicopters circling over several coast guard vessels as divers dressed in bright orange suits entered the water.

The Italian coast guard said eight people rescued were being treated in hospital.

The western half of the Mediterranean has been experiencing severe storms since the middle of last week.

Throughout Sunday night and Monday morning, a series of bad weather swept across the northern coast of Sicily.

A waterspout is a tornado that occurs over water rather than land, says BBC weather forecaster Matt Taylor.

“They can form during severe thunderstorms, on top of cumulus/thunderclouds.

“Turbulent and winds blowing in slightly different directions around the cloud can cause rotation at the bottom of the cloud and form a jet.

“Like tornadoes, they carry strong winds, but instead of picking up dust and debris, they create a water mist around the rotating column of air.”

The British Foreign Office said it was aware of the incident and was in contact with local authorities.

Bayesian is managed by Camper and Nicholsons International.

“Our priority is to support the ongoing search and provide any necessary assistance to the rescued passengers and crew,” a spokesperson told BBC Verify.