Rescuers continue to search for missing yacht passengers

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 21 - Search efforts continued on Wednesday to find the six missing passengers of the Bayesian luxury sailboat that sank off Porticello near Palermo at dawn on Monday.
    Firefighter divers late Tuesday were able to unhinge a three-meter-wide window and used it as an entry point, thanks to jackscrews expressly made by a locksmith in Porticello.
    They were able to access the sailboat's common area but not the cabins, the Italian fire and rescue service said.
    Rescuers said this could require some time as some entrances could be blocked.
    Search efforts are continuing although the sailboat is lying on the starboard side, a position which makes operations more difficult.
    The president of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, has been confirmed as one of six passengers missing.
    The other missing passengers are his wife Anne Elizabeth Judith Bloomer, British tech tycoon and yacht owner Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Lynch's lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Nada Morvillo.
    The Bayesian, with 22 people on board, sank after a tornado hit the area.
    Coast guards rescued 15 passengers but seven others were reported missing, including one person whose body was recovered later on Monday morning after firefighter divers reached the boat located at a depth of some 50 metres, half a mile from the coast.
    The victim was later identified as Ricardo Thomas, who worked on board as chef.
    One of the survivors is a one-year-old child who was taken to Palermo's paediatric hospital.
    British tycoon Lynch, 59, is the founder of the multinational computer company Autonomy.
    Called the 'British Bill Gates', Lynch had ended up at the centre of a high-profile fraud case and in June a US jury acquitted him of all charges relating to the sale of his software company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
    His wife Angela Bacares was among those rescued. (ANSA).