One person is dead and six others missing after a luxury superyacht was struck by a violent storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday, officials confirmed.
The vessel, a 56-metre-long British-flagged sailboat named “Bayesian,” went down off the Sicilian capital Palermo with 22 people on board shortly before sunrise, the Italian coast guard said in a statement.
One Canadian is among those missing, as well as two Americans and four Britons.
A teen and a one-year-old were among those rescued and taken to shore. Eight people were taken to hospital. The boat’s passengers consisted of 10 crew members and 12 foreign tourists.
One body was found near the wreck, said Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the Italian fire rescue service.
A helicopter and rescue boats from the coast guard, Carabinieri, fire rescue and civil protection service were all at the scene searching for the missing and had located the wreck at a depth of 50 metres, reports The Associated Press.
This picture taken from a video released by the Italian Firefighters on Monday shows the stretch of Sea near Palermo, Sicily, in southern Italy, where the sailing yacht Bayesian under the U.K. flag sank early Monday.
Vigili del Fuoco via AP
Local media said a fierce storm, including water spouts, had battered the area overnight but skies were clear and seas calm by Monday morning.
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“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 hammered Italy in recent days, with floods and landslides causing major damage in the north of the country after weeks of scorching heat.
The ANSA news agency said the yacht, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, had been moored off the port at Porticello.
The captain of a nearby boat told Reuters that when the storm hit, he turned the engine on to keep control of the vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian.
“We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner told journalists.
He said that his crew then found some of the survivors on a life raft, including three who were seriously injured, and took them on board before the coast guard picked them up.
Global News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for more information about the incident.
— With files from Reuters
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