British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among six people missing after a luxury superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily in a freak storm.

The 56m vessel was carrying 22 people including British, American and Canadian nationals. Fifteen people were rescued, including a one-year-old girl.

The yacht, named Bayesian, capsized and sank at about 5am local time after a sudden storm generated a woterspout – a rotating column of air similar to a tornado on land.

Mr Lynch, known by some as “the British Bill Gates”, co-founded software company Autonomy, which was then bought by tech giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn. He was later charged with fraud over the deal but was acquitted by a jury just two months before the yacht disaster.

Jane Hill presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Mark Lowen and Simon Jack.

Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog

For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news

#BBCNews

Add comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *