British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is missing along with six other tourists after his luxury superyacht was hit by a freak waterspout and sank off the coast of Sicily this morning, it has emerged.
The luxury sailboat was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when a tornado hit the area just before 5am, wrecking the boat and causing it to rapidly disappear beneath the waves.
Mr Lynch's wife Angela Bacares, 57, was among the fifteen people who were rescued from the 180ft yacht, which she is reported to have owned and had been carrying ten crewmembers, the owner and 11 guests....
There are fears that those who are still missing became trapped in their cabins, with divers earlier reporting that they saw 'bodies through the portholes' of the yacht, according to Italian media.
The tragedy comes just weeks after Mr Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco in June, vindicating the entrepreneur after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The 59-year-old, who was a billionaire at the height of his wealth, has previously been dubbed Britain's Bill Gates after he made his fortune thanks to his company. Its software drew on the Bayesian mathematical theory after which the yacht was named.