Tech tycoon among 6 missing as freak storm sinks luxury yacht in seconds

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among six people missing after a luxury superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily in a freak storm.

The 56m vessel was carrying 22 people including British, American and Canadian nationals. Fifteen people were rescued, including a one-year-old girl.

The yacht, named Bayesian, capsized and sank at about 5am local time after a sudden storm generated a woterspout - a rotating column of air similar to a tornado on land.

Mr Lynch, known by some as "the British Bill Gates", co-founded software company Autonomy, which was then bought by tech giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn. He was later charged with fraud over the deal but was acquitted by a jury just two months before the yacht disaster.