A yacht that was carrying at least one Irish person has sunk off the coast of Sicily overnight.
A 56-metre-long luxury sailboat, the Bayesian, with 22 people on board, sank off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo at around 4.30am.
Fifteen people were rescued from the boat, which capsized near Palermo in the early hours of this morning.
Six people are still reported missing, while at least one person has died. A further 15 passengers were rescued by coastguards.
One of the survivors is reportedly an English one-year-old girl who was taken to Palermo’s paediatric hospital, local media reports. She is in a stable condition.
UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was confirmed among missing people. Lynch is the son of Irish parents
Sources close to the matter have also confirmed that his wife, Angela Bacares, has been rescued.
The passengers on board the British-flagged boat were mainly from the UK, as well as one citizen of New Zealand, one of Sri Lanka, one Irish national and two passengers with dual British-French citizenship.
Some of the people on board the vessel were reportedly Canadian and American nationals.
