Six people are missing, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, and one dead after luxury yacht sinks off Sicily

Rescuers were on Monday searching for six people – including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch – who went missing after a luxury yacht was hit by a tornado and sank off the coast of Sicily, killing one of the 22 people on board.

The vessel was hit by the tornado at around 5 a.m. Monday, according to a spokesperson for Italy’s Coast Guard. The yacht was anchored about a half a mile from the port of Porticello on the Mediterranean island.

Four Britons and two Americans are among those missing, the spokesperson said.

A source told Media Outlets that Lynch, the founder of software giant Autonomy, was a passenger on the yacht. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, and one child was airlifted to the children’s hospital in Palermo. Eight people were hospitalized in total, according to the mayor’s office. One body was found on the hull of the yacht, the Coast Guard said.

A small waterspout – one of several types of tornadoes – developed over the area Monday morning, according to a report from the European Severe Weather Database. Other strong storms across Sicily brought torrential rainfall late Sunday, dumping more than 4 inches (100 mm) of rain in less than four hours in Brolo, east of Palermo.

The weather forecast had warned of potential strong winds, with storms across the entire southern region of Italy Sunday, the Coast Guard spokesperson added.

One survivor, Charlotte, 35, described how she battled to hold onto her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, reported Italian news agency ANSA, as a barrage of waves sank the yacht.

“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,” she told journalists. “Many were screaming.”

The captain is among the survivors, the spokesperson for Italy’s Coast Guard said.

The 56-meter yacht called the “Bayesian,” which flies under a British flag, had mostly British passengers and crew, in addition to two Anglo-French, one Irish and one Sri Lankan, The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Media two of its citizens were involved in the incident, but were not among those still missing. The nationality of the dead person has not been disclosed.

The Italian fire brigade said its divers had reached the yacht’s hull 49 meters (160 feet) below sea level, according to a press statement. The brigade also dispatched helicopters to bolster the search operation.

Michael Richard Lynch OBE DL FRS FREng is a British-Irish technology entrepreneur, known as the co-founder of Autonomy Corporation and the founder of Invoke Capital. Lynch additionally became a co-founder, alongside Invoke Capital, of cybersecurity company Darktrace.