Image source, EPA

The Italian coastguard says it is continuing its search - but given the time that has elapsed since the yacht sank, a positive outcome is "difficult to imagine".

Frigate Captain Vincenzo Zagarola tells Italian radio station RTL 102.5: "Given the time that has passed and the circumstances of the event, it is naturally difficult to imagine that things can go well but we are not giving up, so we are busy [searching for them] with naval and air resources."

Zagarola says the sinking was clearly an "extremely particular episode", and adds: "The harbours in Italy are distributed in a natural way in the coastal docks.

"They are areas that offer a fair amount of protection from dominant events that can create dangerous situations.

"It is obvious that any harbour naturally offers shelter but it is not the same thing as being docked in a port."

Divers from Napoli and Messina are assisting with the operation.

Image source, Getty Images

Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur, is among six people missing after a luxury yacht sunk off the coast of Sicily.

In 1991, Lynch helped establish Cambridge Neurodynamics - a firm that specialised in using computer-based detection and recognition of fingerprints.

Five years later, he co-founded the British tech firm Autonomy.

In 2011, Lynch made his riches by selling his company to US computing giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11bn (£8.6bn).

But an intense legal battle following the high-profile acquisition loomed over Lynch for over a decade. He was acquitted of multiple fraud charges in the US in June, over which he had been facing two decades in jail.

In 2006 he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his service to UK enterprise.

He served on the board of the BBC as a non-executive director, and in 2011 was appointed to the government's council for science and technology - advising then-Prime Minister David Cameron on the risks and possibilities of AI development.

• You can read more about Mike Lynch here
• Or listen to our new profile on BBC Sounds

Image source, Reuters

We’ve now entered day two of the search for six people still missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily yesterday. Here’s what we've learned so far today about the complex operation:

• Neda Morvillo – an American jewellery designer – and her husband, lawyer Chris Morvillo, are among the missing people. The news was confirmed by Mr Morvillo's law firm, Clifford Chance
• Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy Bloomer, are both unaccounted for
• They were guests of UK businessman Mike Lynch, who is missing along with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch
• Rescue operations are continuing near Porticello, but divers have been hampered in their efforts to get inside the wreckage on the seabed, the fire service has said
• One man’s body has been recovered since the yacht sank. The Italian Coast Guard identified him as the boat’s cook and he’s been named in reports elsewhere as Recaldo Thomas
• Lawyers who had represented Lynch were invited to join him on the yacht following his acquittal in his legal case in June, one of the survivors relatives has said

Image source, Reuters

The Italian coastguard believes the six people still missing from the Bayesian could be trapped inside the sunken yacht.

Spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola tells the PA news agency they may not have had time to get out of the boat as it sank very quickly. We earlier heard from one of the doctors treating the survivors that it capsized "within minutes".

One of the divers told Italian media the yacht is "practically intact", resting on its side on the seabed.

Authorities have had difficulty accessing the inner cabins, where the missing people are likely to be if they did not have time to escape.

Earlier, we heard from a spokesperson for the Italian fire and rescue service, who said divers were hampered by furniture blocking access to the cabins. They were looking for alternative ways to get inside, including through a window.

Divers are restricted to just 12 minutes below the surface of the water. With the time it takes to dive down to the wreck and ascend again, they have just 10 minutes per dive to search the wreck.

We just reported that the sixth passenger missing following the sinking of the Bayesian yacht off Sicily has been named as Neda Morvillo.

Morvillo, a jewellery designer, is the wife of another missing passenger, Chris Morvillo. He is a partner at the Clifford Chance law firm.

The remaining four people still unaccounted for are:

• British technology tycoon Mike Lynch
• Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch
• Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank International
• Judy Bloomer, the wife of Jonathan Bloomer

Image source, nedanassiri.com

Neda Morvillo, who is missing after the yacht disaster in Sicily, is a jewellery designer who works under the name Neda Nassiri.

Her website says she "has been designing and hand-crafting fine jewelry in New York City for over 20 years".

According to her social media profile, she lives in New York City, and is reported to be 57 years old.

She is married to Chris Morvillo, a Clifford Chance lawyer and former assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Image source, Getty

American jewellery designer Neda Morvillo - wife of lawyer Chris Morvillo - is one of six missing people after the yacht disaster in Sicily, Mr Morvillo's employer Clifford Chance has confirmed.

The law firm says: "We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident.

"Our thoughts are with our partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife, Neda, who are among the missing.

"Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner thankfully survived the incident.

"Our thoughts extend to the other passengers and crew and all those affected.

"We have no further comment at this time. We, and the families, ask that their request for privacy is honoured during this period."

Four British citizens are still missing after the Bayesian sank, with seven accounted for, the UK Ambassador to Italy Edward Llewellyn tells the BBC in Porticello.

He did not name the four missing Brits, but they are believed to be Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy.

Llewellyn says he has spoken to most of the British survivors and what they say "underlines what a desperately sad and distressing situation they all found themselves in".

"All our hearts go out to those caught up in this terrible tragedy," he says.

As search and rescue efforts continue in Sicily, let's have a look at what Italian media are reporting:

• The yacht is "practically intact", a diver from Palermo's fire and rescue service tells Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, external. "It is resting on its side on the starboard side. It has no gashes, no signs of impact," Marco Tilotta says
• A "small Concordia" is how the fire and rescue service describes the operation, according to the Corriere della Sera, external. That's a reference to the Costa Concordia, which ran aground in Italy in 2012
• A professor at the University of Palermo tells La Repubblica, external that the Bayesian was in the "wrong place at the wrong time"

Helen Burchell
Live reporter

Missing tycoon Mike Lynch once served as the deputy lieutenant of Suffolk - and the current Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Lady Clare, Countess of Euston, says the news from Sicily is "a terrible shock to everyone".

"After everything that he’s been through lately, and how he so courageously defended himself [from legal action in the US]… and suddenly this has happened," says Lady Clare, who is a friend of the Lynch family.

"It’s absolutely horrific and I feel so, so sorry for his family and for Angela [Lynch's wife] in particular."

With the couple's daughter Hannah about to start university, Lady Clare says: "They were all looking forward to some wonderful years."

Image source, Matt Marvel/BBC

Survivors of the Bayesian yacht say the ship "capsized within a few minutes", according to a doctor treating them.

Speaking from Di Cristina Children's Hospital in Palermo, Dr Domenico Cipolla says: "They told me they found themselves in an incredible condition, let's say of physical and psychological upheaval of their lives, and that the boat capsized within a few minutes."

One British mother, Charlotte Golunski, was on board the Bayesian with her partner and held her baby above the waves as help arrived.

"Yesterday we already had a psychologist all day, first with the mother and the child, then with the father, and in the afternoon as well.

"So, psychological support was constant and is constant even today, because basically it is the wounds of the soul are the most in need of healing in these cases."

Dr Cipolla says the hospital provided "toys for the baby, cuddles, and fed them because they were frightened and hungry".

Matt Taylor
BBC Weather

Image source, Getty Images

Witnesses describe seeing a waterspout form during the storm before the sinking of the Bayesian.

Most of us are aware of what tornadoes are – rotating columns of destructive winds, protruding from the base of clouds down to the ground.

Waterspouts are just that too, but are over water rather than land. Instead of dust and debris swirling around the core of strong winds, it’s water mist whipped up from the surface.

Like tornadoes, most are only short-lived, narrow columns and are not easily picked out on weather radars, so many will go unreported.

However, they are not as rare as you may think. According to the International Centre for Waterspout Research there were 18 confirmed waterspouts off the coast of Italy on 19 August alone.

In the northern hemisphere, waterspouts are most common in late summer and through the autumn, when sea temperatures are at their highest, fuelling the storm clouds. However, with sea temperatures rising due to climate change there is a concern that they could become more common.

In the last week, the Mediterranean has registered its highest sea surface temperature on record, which has helped to energise this recent storm outbreak.

Image source, PA Media

Divers sent to search the wreckage of the yacht confirm no casualties have been found on the bridge - the room in which the captain controls the vessel.

Luca Cari, the head of emergency communications of Italy's fire and rescue department, tells Italian news agency Ansa that the bridge has been found full of electrical cables.

Cari says that after descending to the wreckage, divers have only 10 minutes to search before needing to resurface.

He says divers are unable to see inside the yacht, but have entered the lounge through a ladder and are working to find a way forward from there.

A three centimetre thick glass window is also being considered as another possible point of entry, he adds.

Image source, PA Media

Today, dive teams are focusing on finding a way into the yacht's cabins, Italy's fire and rescue service says.

In an update posted to social media, Vigili del Fuoco says teams first entered the water at 08:00 (07:00 BST) this morning.

It says that planning is underway to open easier access points to allow the team inside the hull, which we hear is obstructed with furniture and various objects.

The wreckage is currently sitting 50m (165ft) below the surface of the water.

Judy Bloomer, one of the six people still missing following the sinking of the Bayesian yacht, has been called a "brilliant champion for women's health" by a charity she has worked closely with.

CEO of the Eve Appeal, Athena Lamnisos, where Bloomer has been a trustee and supporter for over 20 years, says it is "deeply shocked to hear the news that our very dear friend and her husband Jonathan, are among those missing".

"Our thoughts are with Judy and Jonathan’s family, as well as all those who are still waiting for news after this tragic event."

Jonathan Bloomer, Judy's husband, and chairman of Morgan Stanley International Bank and insurance company Hiscox, is also missing.

The president of the Italian Meteorological Society says the ocean temperature in the Mediterranean sea near Sicily and Sardinia is three degrees (Celsius) warmer than normal for this time of year.

"This heatwave in Mediterranean waters is defined as extreme," Luca Mercalli tells Reuters news agency, describing it as a "very high meteorological anomaly character".

He adds that at 04:00 local time (05:00 BST), there was a "brief but very violent meteorological event" involving winds of over 150km/h (93mph).

Witnesses to the sinking of the Bayesian described seeing a waterspout form during the storm.

Image source, Reuters

The inspector of the diving unit trying to access wreckage of the Bayesian yacht says the team will continue "uninterrupted" all day to find a way inside.

Marco Tilotta tells Reuters news agency that entering the vessel is difficult because the hull is tilted at a 90 degree angle, and there is "a world of objects" obstructing the narrow stairs leading into the cabins.

He adds that teams conducted five dives yesterday and that divers are already in the water again today.

"We are not stopping. We have resources, manpower and means. Our goal is to find all the people who are missing, so that is our job," Tilotta says.

Emergency teams resumed their work this morning at 06:30 local time, searching for the six missing passengers of the sunk Bayesian yacht. You can watch their progress below.

Yesterday, divers identified a wreckage 50m (164ft) below the water's surface.

This morning, the fire service said divers couldn't access the yacht's cabins due to furniture blocking passage inside.

Image source, Getty Images

More now on the search and rescue effort following the sinking of the Bayesian yacht off Sicily, with six people still missing.

Italian news website il Giornale now reports that some of the divers deployed today also supported search efforts onboard the Costa Concordia.

The Costa Concordia partially sank in January 2012 after it struck a rock off the coast of Tuscany, killing 33 people.

An inspector in the Palermo fire brigade's diving unit, Marco Tilotta, describes the scene today as "similar to the Costa Concordia, on a smaller scale".

Image source, X: Vigili del Fuoco

The Vigili del Fuoco, Italy's fire and rescue service, says it has responded to more than 100 calls for help after storms battered Italy's Mediterranean islands.

It says that it was called out to respond to floods, various water damage and road accidents.

The Bayesian sank off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, in bad weather at around 05:00 on Monday.