Emily Atkinson
Live page editor

Image source, EPA

We're re-launching our live coverage as more details emerge about the six people who are missing after a yacht sank in a storm off Sicily yesterday.

Sicily’s Civil Protection department identified Morgan Stanley International Bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo as missing in an update to the BBC this morning.

UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter were earlier confirmed as missing after the sinking, which happened about 700m (2,300ft) from the Mediterranean island's shore.

The 56m Bayesian was carrying 22 people including Brits, Americans and Canadians. Fifteen people were rescued, including a one-year-old British girl.

A man's body has been recovered. He has not been formally identified, but the Palermo coastguard said he was the ship's cook.

You can read more on circumstances of the sinking and the ongoing rescue efforts here. Stay with us on this page as we bring you the latest updates, reaction and analysis.

Here's a reminder of what we know so far:

• A luxury yacht - sailing under the name Bayesian - sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning
• The 56m (183ft) vessel was carrying 22 people including British, American and Canadian nationals
• Emergency services rescued 15 people, including a one-year-old British girl
• British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his eighteen-year-old daughter and the yacht's chef are among the missing

• Divers have identified a wreckage 50m below the water's surface
• The BBC has been told the search will continue through the night

We're pausing our live coverage, but will continue to monitor any developments.

Canada's foreign ministry has confirmed it is in contact with local authorities in Sicily amid reports Canadians were onboard the Bayesian when it sunk.

A spokesperson told the BBC they are "aware of reports that a Canadian citizen has died".

Italian authorities have not formally confirmed the nationality of the one person whose body has been recovered.

The ill-fated luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily this morning was carrying 22 people in total - 12 guests and 10 crew.

So far, one body has been recovered, that of the boat's chef, the Italian coast guard confirmed.

Four Britons and two Americans are still missing, the coast guard reported earlier.

The remaining 15 people who were on board the yacht have been rescued.

British businessman Mike Lynch, who remains unaccounted for, was travelling with his daughter Hannah, who is also missing, Sicily's head of civil protection agency confirmed.

Lynch's wife Angela Bacares is among the survivors.

Another British woman, Charlotte Golunski, has told reporters that she kept her baby alive by holding her up above the water until the pair were rescued.

Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald was also rescued after the yacht sank, the BBC has learned. According to the law firm's website, she was part of Mike Lynch's legal team in the case brought by Hewlett-Packard (HP).

Image source, Getty Images

The British tech entrepreneur is among the 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 in the US in June on multiple fraud charges, 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

Image source, Vigili Del Fuoco Handout/Reuters

• One man is dead and six people are still missing after a luxury yacht carrying 22 passengers - including several British citizens - sank in the early hours of the morning
• The Italian coastguard has launched a search and rescue operation using specialist divers, helicopters and patrol boats
• The yacht was struck by a powerful storm outside the harbour at Porticello near Palermo. Witnesses say the boat's mast snapped in half and later became unbalanced
• Tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah and chef Ricardo Thomas are among those missing in the shipwreck. Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, has survived the disaster
• One of the British passengers, Charlotte Golunski, told reporters she kept her one-year-old daughter alive by holding her up in the water until they managed to get on a lifeboat
• Alongside the British citizens, the passengers are reportedly from several other countries including the US, Canada, Sri Lanka and Ireland

According to witnesses, the vessel - a 56m (184ft) luxury yacht that was carrying 22 people - was struck by a powerful storm in the early hours of the morning.

It was reportedly anchored to the seabed outside the harbour at Porticello, east of Palermo, when what the Italian coastguard described as a "violent storm" hit.

Witnesses told the Italian news agency Ansa that the force of the storm caused the ship's 72m (236ft) aluminium mast to snap in half and the boat became unbalanced.

It disappeared beneath the water at around 05:00 local time.

A local fisherman told reporters he saw a waterspout in the vicinity, a form of tornado that occurs over water rather than land and can generate powerful winds.

Salvo Cocina, head of Sicily's civil protection agency, said of those on board the Bayesian: "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Stefano Fasano
Live reporter

The director general of Sicily's civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, has confirmed to the BBC that Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah Lynch, and the Bayesian's chef Ricardo Thomas, are among those missing in the shipwreck.

Hannah is believed to be 18 years old.

Cocina stated that the rescue operation will continue overnight, as a specialist caving search and rescue diving team has now arrived from Rome, hoping to "achieve results" either during the night or by tomorrow morning at the latest.

Image source, Facebook

Earlier we brought you the news of the British mother who kept her baby daughter alive after the boat sank, by holding the one-year-old above the waves until the pair were able to get into a rescue boat.

We can now report that woman is Charlotte Golunski, a colleague of Mike Lynch.

She told la Repubblica newspaper: "I held her [her daughter] afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.

“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."

We've just had a new statement from the Palermo Coastguard. They've told us:

• The body recovered this morning is the ship's cook, the only crew member who was unaccounted for
• Six passengers are still missing and the coastguard is continuing the search and rescue operation "incessantly"
• Four patrol boats are involved, plus a helicopter and a team of divers. A naval and underwater team from the Palermo fire brigade have joined the search
• Of the 15 people rescued, eight were taken to local hospitals

• The sunken yacht is about half a mile out to sea from the port of Porticello, and is 50 metres underwater

A doctor based in the Sicilian city of Palermo has spoken to Reuters news agency, describing "very tired" survivors as "constantly asking about the missing people".

Dr Domenico Cipolla says all he has been able to tell them is one body has been found, while the other six people remain missing.

Image source, Reuters

Dr Cipolla also tells Reuters that one woman he treated described the trip as a "corporate holiday", with some of those on board being "very young".

"There were a lot of work colleagues, friends, a few husbands, wives, or a couple of friends who had joined in," he adds.

The UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch is sending inspectors to carry out a preliminary assessment of the Bayesian's sinking, the BBC understands.

The team of four will be sent to Palermo in Sicily.

Stefano Fasano
Live reporter

Warning: There are details in this post that some readers could find distressing.

We can now bring you some more details about the search operation that continues around the wreckage of the Bayesian.

As a reminder, six people are still missing after the luxury yacht sank off the coast of Porticello earlier this morning.

Francesco Venuto, the spokesperson for Sicily's civil protection agency, tells the BBC that they "think [the corpses] must be there [in the boat]".

"We've been searching all day with helicopters and boats, we've found nothing. That wouldn't make sense, in this conditions we should have found something by now," Venuto adds.

One death has been confirmed by officials so far.

Mike Lynch, the UK businessman who is among the missing people who were on board the Bayesian, spoke to our colleagues on Radio 4's PM programme earlier this month.

His conversation with our colleagues was prompted by his being cleared of fraud charges in the US (more on that in our earlier posts).

You can watch what the IT tycoon had to say about his relief at being acquitted below:

The makers of the Bayesian, the luxury yacht that sank of the coast of Sicily this morning, have just released some more detailed photos of the vessel in action.

The yacht measures at 56m (184ft) long and was built by Italian shipbuilders Perini Navi, who designed it with luxury interiors and six bedroom suites on board.

Image source, Perini Navi

Image source, Perini Navi

Matt Taylor
BBC Weather

In one of the reports from eyewitnesses today, a captain of a nearby fishing boat described how he saw what he believes was a waterspout in the harbour just before the yacht sank.

But what are waterspouts? They are basically a tornado that has occurred over water rather than land.

They can form during intense storms, on the base of cumulonimbus / thunder clouds.

Turbulence and the wind blowing in slightly different directions around the cloud can cause rotation under the base of the cloud and the spout to form.

Like tornadoes, they bring powerful winds, but instead of picking up dust and debris they cause a water mist around the column of rotating air.

It has not been confirmed whether there was a waterspout in the harbour this morning or what caused the yacht to sink.

Matt Taylor
BBC Weather

Image source, EPA

As we've been reporting throughout the day, the company that managed the Bayesian has confirmed that there was indeed "severe weather" before the luxury yacht sank.

For context, low pressure has been sitting over the western Mediterranean since the middle of last week, causing storm clouds to form.

While summer storms are certainly not unheard of, these recent ones have been especially intense.

Some brought severe flooding to parts of the Balearics last week, especially Menorca, as well as parts of Corsica and Sardinia over the weekend.

The extra energy in these storms may be partly linked to record-breaking sea temperatures in the Mediterranean.

According to scientists at Spain’s leading institute of marine sciences, the Institut de Ciencies del Mar, the maximum sea surface temperature record for the Mediterranean Sea was broken last week.

The median temperature was the highest in over 40 years of satellite records.

Higher sea temperatures can act as extra fuel to the storm clouds, helping to make them more severe.

A local fisherman, Giuseppe, has been telling reporters about the scene he saw unfolding this morning in Porticello.

"I was onboard the motorboat 'Francesca’ when I saw mats and T-shirts floating in the sea," he tells Reuters news agency, adding that he saw people being rescued in an inflatable boat.

Another witness, Fabio Cefalù, captain of a trawler, says he was about to go out on a fishing trip when he saw flashes of lightning so he stayed in the harbour.

"At about 4:15am we saw a flare in the sea," the EVN news agency reports.

"We waited for this waterspout to pass," Cefalù says.

"After ten minutes we went out to the sea and we saw cushions and all the rest of the boat [that had sunk], and everything which was on the deck, at sea. However, we did not see any people in the sea.”

Image source, EBU

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, BBC News has confirmed.

Sources close to the matter have also confirmed that his wife, Angela Bacares, has been rescued.