Canadian among 6 missing after superyacht sinks in storm off Sicily; 1 dead
CTV
One man died and six people were missing, including a Canadian, after a luxury yacht was struck by an unexpectedly violent storm and sank off the Sicilian capital Palermo on Monday, the Italian coast guard said.
One man died and six people were missing, after a luxury yacht was struck by an unexpectedly violent storm and sank off the Sicilian capital Palermo early on Monday.
The 56-metre-long sailboat was identified as the British-registered Bayesian and sank with 22 people on board shortly before sunrise, the coast guard said in a statement.
The names of the dead and missing were not immediately released, but a person familiar with the rescue operation confirmed that British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was not accounted for. The Italian coast guard said the missing had British, American and Canadian nationality.
The 15 people rescued included a one-year-old child.
"The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude," a coast guard official in Palermo told Reuters.
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept down Italy in recent days - with floods and landslides causing major damage in the north of the country - after weeks of scorching heat.
Eight of those rescued were transferred to local hospitals. All were in stable condition, local media reported.
