Two New Zealanders were on board a luxury yacht that capsized during a storm in Italy, the country's foreign ministry confirmed.
Ayla Ronald, a 36-year-old lawyer from Christchurch who was working in London, was on board the superyacht with her partner Matthew Fletcher when disaster struck, her father Lin Ronald told Stuff.
His daughter had texted him that "there are deaths, and she and her partner are alive".
The Kiwi, who joined law firm Clifford Chance in 2018, was on the 56m-long superyacht Bayesian with 21 other people when it capsized and sank near the port of Porticello in bad weather early on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
One body has been found and six people are missing, including UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter, with authorities saying Lynch's wife and 14 others were rescued.
The group was on the boat celebrating Lynch's acquittal on fraud charges. Lin Ronald confirmed his daughter had been working on his case.
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He told Stuff that Ayla was "very shocked at the moment" and hadn't fully shared the details of what she went through.
"Generally speaking, Ayla and her partner are survivors. They are alive. That's about all I can tell you," he said. "We spent hours sailing together and she was bought up on a boat."
The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the country's embassy in Rome was providing consular assistance to the two New Zealanders involved in the incident. There was no reason to believe the second person was among those missing, they said.
'Wrong place at the wrong time'
The Bayesian was carrying 22 people and was anchored just off shore near the port of Porticello when it was hit by ferocious weather, the Italian coast guard said in a statement.
A tornado over the water known as a waterspout struck the area overnight, said Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency.
One body had been recovered, and police divers were trying to reach the hull of the ship, which was resting on the sea floor off Porticello where it had been anchored, rescue authorities said.
"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Cocina, noting that another big ship nearby, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, wasn't as badly damaged and helped rescue the 15 survivors — including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares.
One of the survivors, identified as Charlotte Golunski, said she momentarily lost hold of her one-year-old daughter Sofia in the water, but then managed to hold her up over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were both pulled to safety, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The father, identified by ANSA as James Emslie, also survived, said Cocina.
Karsten Borner, the captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, said he had noticed the Bayesian nearby during the storm but after it calmed he saw a red flare and realised the ship had simply disappeared, ANSA and the Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported.
Borner said he and a crew member boarded their tender and found a lifeboat with 15 people, some of them injured, who they then took aboard and alerted the coast guard.
Eight of those rescued were hospitalised while the others were taken to a hotel. One body believed to be the cook was found near the wreck, but six others were unaccounted for and believed inside the hull, said Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the Italian fire rescue service.
Rescue crews located the vessel and deep-water police divers were trying to access the hull, Cari said. The operations, which were visible from shore, involved helicopters and rescue boats from the coast guard, fire rescue and civil protection service.
Cocina said the crew and passengers hailed from a variety of countries: In addition to Britain and the United States, passengers and crew were from Antigua, France, Germany, Ireland, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain, he said.
This story has been reproduced with permission from Stuff.co.nz.