A TECH tycoon who has been dubbed ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ is reportedly among the four Brits missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
Billionaire entrepreneur Mike Lynch is still missing hours after the £14m luxury ship Bayesian capsized in a tornado.
AlamyBritish entrepreneur Mike Lynch is reportedly missing after a superyacht sunk[/caption]
The Bayesian is 56 metres long and cost £166,000 a week to hire
PASicilian fire crews have been on the water searching today[/caption]
Zuma PressAmbulances with health workers wait on the pier[/caption]
ReutersA survivor leaves the Coast Guard Headquarters today[/caption]
Three other British tourists are feared dead after the boat sank off the coast of Sicily this morning.
Lynch was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel, the Telegraph reported this afternoon.
Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, is among those who have been rescued.
Three other Brits, two Americans, and one Canadian are among the remaining six missing.
The lifeless body of one victim who was sailing onboard the doomed yacht has already been pulled from the Mediterranean.
Lynch is a serial entrepreneur having founded and sold tech and software companies. He was awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.
He was extradited to the US on fraud charges in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.
Invoke Capital, one of Lynch’s companies has been approached for comment by The Sun.
The yacht is believed to have been flooded by water after a tornado off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, just before 5am local time on Monday morning.
A man’s body was tragically found underwater alongside the shipwreck by divers, reports Corriere Della Sera.
At least 15 people were saved by coast guards, patrol boats, firefighters and local fishermen – with seven still missing.
Helicopters, divers, patrol boats and firefighters are all helping with the desperate search of the area.
An expert team of divers have already been able to locate the vessel 160ft below the water on the seabed.
Sicily is currently under a weather warning for strong winds.
Almost all of the 22 passengers and crew onboard are said to have been inside their cabins and rooms when the weather took a turn.
RuckasDivers are now searching the wreckage[/caption]
A one-year-old British girl was rescued by her mother in the sea after the sinking before they were rushed to hospital.
Mum Charlotte spoke about the frantic rescue, telling Giornale di Sicilia: “For 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. Many were screaming.
“Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board.”
The father was also onboard at the time of the horror ordeal.
Charlotte managed to swim over to one of the rafts where she and her daughter were taken to safety along with 11 others.
It sails under a British flag, according to a Facebook post Sunday evening.
The ship is managed by Camper and Nicholsons International.
A spokesperson for the company told the BBC they are “dealing with a situation onboard one of [their] managed vessels”.
The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo last Wednesday and was last tracked east of Palermo last night, according to tracking app Vesselfinder.
PASearch helicopters are flying over the area searching for survivors[/caption]
Rail NewsCCTV caught Sicily being battered with violent winds overnight[/caption]
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
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