It’s nearly midnight in Porticello – a quaint fishing village popular with tourists and Sicilian locals looking for a weekend away. 

Here it is not unusual to see people, including young children, gathered on a small plinth overlooking the harbourside. 

But tonight they’re not admiring the calm waters or the full moon above – instead their eyes are trained on the scene illuminated by two giant floodlights.

Three fire and rescue trucks and a big white tent can be seen – the hub of the makeshift emergency rescue operation here. 

About 100 metres from the tent is where a coastguard vessel with blue flashing lights circles the water with cave divers on board. 

It’s combing the area where they know the yacht stood only hours ago. It’s careful work for the divers with only moonlight and the glow of the festoon lights on the harbour front aiding their work on the surface. 

Back on the harbour and people in blue uniforms rush in and out of the white tent. Some of the 30 or so onlookers here tell reporters about last night’s storm.

They say it was relentless and unforgiving, and describe the wind pounding on their hotel and apartment windows. One woman described it as “scary” inside her house, let alone on a lonely vessel moored off the coast. 

They watch now as recovery efforts ramp up with extra teams coming ashore to aid the meticulous work – it’ll continue long into the night. 

As the hours tick by without news, the more likely this turns into a recovery mission.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the search for six tourists after a luxury yacht sank in a tornado off the coast of Sicily.

Among them is British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter.

One person has been confirmed dead, believed to be the vessel’s Canadian chef, while four of the missing passengers are British and two American, according to Italian newspaper la Repubblica.

The Palermo Port Authority told Canadian broadcaster CBC News officials recovered the body of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-born man who had been living in Antigua.

The British-flagged yacht, called Bayesian, had 10 crew and 12 passengers on board and sank at about 5am local time off the coast of Palermo.

Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency said: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”