One dead, six missing, 15 rescued after luxury British yacht sinks off Sicily

One man has died and six other people are missing after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily during bad weather

There were 22 people on board in total, 15 people were rescued including a one-year-old child

The Captain of a nearby ship said he found the 15 survivors in a life raft and alerted the coastguard.

The captain of a nearby boat that rescued the 15 people has described the conditions in which the Bayesian sank last night.

Karsten Borner says his own vessel was battered by very strong gusts in the early hours of the morning, managing to stabilise it while anchored by using the engine.

He says as they were doing this, they noticed the Bayesian nearby and manoeurved to avoid hitting it.

“We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.”

Borner says afterwards he and his first mate noticed a flare in the water, heading to smoke and light to find a life raft drifting in the sea.

Describing the conditions, the captain says his vessel was also leaning over to the side, but the Bayesian “went flat on the water and then down” .

“There was a light and we saw that the ship was aside and then we saw a triangle. So I think she went back down.”

The 56m (183ft) yacht; the Bayesian, was flying a British flag, and was around 700 metres from the harbour when it sank

Earlier, authorities said four people from the United Kingdom were missing, two from the United States, and one from Canada; the nationality of the dead person is not known

A wreck has been identified at a depth of 50m, with divers searching for the missing people, and helicopters scouring the sea

The Bayesian, the luxury yacht that sank, was around 700m (2,296ft) from Porticello harbour when it last reported its location, which occurred at just after 03:00 BST.

It was built in 2008 and travel data from MarineTraffic shows that it spent the majority of its life in the western Mediterranean.

In the week before it sunk, the Bayesian had sailed around Northern Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, a popular tourist destination.

We can’t tell who was sailing onboard at the time from this tracking data. This information will be on a private manifest.

“Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew.

“More information will be provided as it becomes available”, officials said.