THE bodies of five people found after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily have been identified by the Italian coastguard, with one of them being businessman Mike Lynch.

Divers had been attempting to access the boat - which is around 50m (165ft) below the surface - since Monday morning (August 19)

Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo have also been identified.

Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch remains unaccounted for, Sky News reports.

The maximum depth most experienced recreational divers are allowed to go to is 40m (130ft), with most dives occurring at depths significantly less extreme than that.

It comes just weeks after Mr Lynch, 59, was in June cleared of all charges by a US jury in the high-profile fraud case related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.

The daily Il Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported that the vessel had mostly British passengers on board, but also people from New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland and British-French citizens.

One of the survivors, a British tourist named Charlotte, told la Reppublica she held her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, to stop her from drowning.

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She said: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.

“It was all dark. In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”

Charlotte and Sofia are being treated in hospital, as is Charlotte’s husband, James.

Who is Mike Lynch?

Ilford-born Dr Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a mother who was a nurse from County Tipperary in Ireland.

In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list valued him and his wife Angela Bacares, 57, at £852m.