A manslaughter investigation has been opened into the deaths of seven people in the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily, an Italian prosecutor has said.
British tech mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among six people recovered after the Bayesian superyacht sank near Porticello at about 5am local time on Monday.
The body of Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the superyacht, was recovered at the scene on Monday.
Ambrogio Cartosio, public prosecutor of nearby town of Termini Imerese, said in a press conference at the town's court that his office has opened an initial investigation into manslaughter, according to a translation.
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The bodies of six people were recovered from cabins on the left side of the yacht after it had sunk, the chief of the Palermo fire service told the press conference.
Girolamo Bentivoglio said, through a translation provided by the BBC, that specialised divers attempting to retrieve the bodies had to deal with "very little visibility due to the weather conditions" and were called in from across the country as part of a search-and-rescue operation which involved "some 70 people" each day.
He added: "The yacht obviously pinned to the right and obviously the (people) tried to go on the other side and then took refuge in their cabins.
"We found four or five bodies in the cabin on the left and there was another one in the third cabin on the left too, and obviously they were in the higher part of the wreck.
"Obviously, emergency procedures were implemented by the divers and obviously we installed cameras and involved further divers.
"And we involved obviously helicopter services and other surveillance cameras."
Fifteen people survived, including Mr Lynch's wife, whose company owned the Bayesian, and the yacht's captain.
The captain James Cutfield and the other survivors have been questioned by the coast guard on behalf of prosecutors. None of them have commented publicly on how the ship went down.
There is no legal obligation for the captain, crew and passengers to remain in Italy, the prosecutor has said, but he added they are expected to fully cooperate with the investigation.
Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were also recovered from the wreckage.
A leading coastguard official said he could not confirm how long it would take to retrieve the shipwreck of the sunken yacht, adding that recovering the fuel tanks was a "priority for us because it has environmental knock-on effects".
Asked about the timeline of recovering the wreck, maritime director of western Sicily Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda of the coastguard said: "Well, you know, we're talking about a shipwreck at 50 metres down.
"Everything depends on the availability of the owners and the timeframe of the retrieval of the wreck and of course all that has to be submitted to the port authorities and in parallel of course there will be the inquiry results and it's only really then that we will be able to authorise the operation.
"I can't say, like some experts who have already spoken on the subject, that it will be eight weeks."
Additional reporting: Reuters
