The Italian coastguard is still searching for six people after a luxury sailing yacht sank off the coast of Sicily last night. The accident claimed the lives of at least one person on board.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed that the 15 passengers who were rescued included a Dutch national. According to the spokesman, he is in good health.

The ship sank in bad weather near the port of Porticello, east of Palermo. A strong storm with high winds was blowing in the area. The yacht is currently anchored at a depth of about fifty meters. Divers have been deployed to search for the missing. Local media reported that they are believed to still be on board.

Italian rescue services search for missing people:

There were ten crew and twelve passengers on board the ship when it sank. The six missing are all passengers. The body of the fatal victim has now been recovered. Italian media reported that it was the cook. Those still missing are said to be British, American and Canadian nationals.

British media reported that one of the missing was British businessman Mike Lynch. His wife is said to be one of the rescued passengers. According to the BBC, the sunken yacht bears her name. Lynch was acquitted two months ago of fraud charges worth billions in the United States.

There was another sailboat close to the yacht. It sailed under a Dutch flag, but was owned by a German couple. The Germans told the Italian news site Rai that they saw gunfire. They managed to rescue some of the passengers. “We heard screaming and kept searching the area, but we didn’t find anyone else,” the boat’s captain told Rai.