Sicily Bayesian yacht sinking – how tragedy unfolded

There were 22 people on board when the storm hit, including 12 passengers and 10 crew.

The body of one man, thought to have been a cook on the yacht, was found outside the wreckage. His nationality has not been confirmed.

Among the six people still missing is 59-year-old tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, known by some as the “British Bill Gates”.

Mr Lynch founded software giant Autonomy in 1996 and 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.

Afterwards, he told the BBC in an interview he had been able to prove his innocence only because he had the wealth to pay the enormous legal fees required.

Sicily’s civil protection agency also confirmed to the BBC that Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah and the Bayesian’s chef Ricardo Thomas are among those missing.

La Repubblica reports that the six missing include four British nationals and two Americans.

Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares is among the 15 people to have been rescued, with eight of those receiving treatment in hospital, the Italian coastguard said.

Charlotte Golunski, her husband and daughter Sofia were also rescued and were unharmed, but taken to hospital for check-ups.

She said they had been on the yacht with a group of colleagues.

The daily Il Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported the vessel had mostly British passengers on board, but also people from New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland and British-French citizens.

A doctor based in Palermo said the “very tired” survivors were “constantly asking about the missing people”.

Dr Domenico Cipolla told Reuters one woman he treated described the trip as a “corporate holiday”, with some of those on board “very young”.

“There were a lot of work colleagues, friends, a few husbands, wives, or a couple of friends who had joined in,” he adds.