British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his eighteen-year-old daughter are among the six people missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning.

According to BBC, 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.

Local media reported the yacht, sailing under the name Bayesian, sank after encountering a heavy storm overnight that caused waterspouts, or rotating columns of air, to appear over the sea.

One man, understood to be the vessel’s chef, was confirmed dead and six others, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, remained unaccounted for on Monday evening. The coastguard said the missing had British, American and Canadian nationalities.

Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who owned the boat, and a one-year-old girl who was saved by her mother.

The 59-year-old was acquitted by a jury in San Francisco in June, after he had spent more than a year living in effect under house arrest.

Upon his acquittal, he told reporters: “I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field.”

Mike Lynch was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006, and appointed in 2011 to the science and technology council of the then prime minister, David Cameron. He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.

Reacting to the news, the Italian coastguard said: “This morning at about 5am, following a violent storm, a 56-metre yacht called Bayesian flying the British flag sank near Porticello.”

The boat had a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers, it added.

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