The 56-metre Bayesian, which was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, capsized shortly before 5am local time when the area was hit by a tornado, with 15 guests rescued from the water.
It has been reported that four of the missing passengers are British and two are American, while one body has been recovered.
Salvatore Cocina, director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, told the BBC that 18-year-old Hannah Lynch was confirmed to be missing with her father, along with the yacht’s chef, Ricardo Thomas.
At the time it sank, the British-flagged superyacht was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers, with Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares among those rescued, local media has reported.
Among those to be saved is Charlotte Golunski and her husband James Emsley, who had been on board with their one-year-old daughter Sofia when the storm began to violently sway the boat.
She said: “It was the end of the world and my husband and I were struggling to stand up.”
As the yacht sank, the family were thrown into the water. “For two seconds, I lost my daughter in the sea, then quickly hugged her amid the fury of the waves.”
“I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,” she added. ‘It was all dark. In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
Ms Golunski, Mr Emsley and Sofia are all being treated in hospital.
An Italian doctor at the paediatric hospital in Palermo who treated the family told local media: “She told me that while they were sleeping, at a certain point the yacht overturned due to the tornado, and they found themselves in the water.
“Some of them immediately managed to get onto the lifeboat. And some, evidently, didn’t make it.”
This story is from the August 20, 2024 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the August 20, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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