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Search teams scour waters along Italy’s southwestern shore, where a luxury yacht sank

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Divers are using underwater robots in waters off the coast of Sicily today. At least one body has been recovered, while others remain missing. They're searching the wreckage of a luxury yacht that sank there two days ago. Authorities are investigating why it capsized and whether climate change may have played a role. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from London.

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ANNA BOTTING: It's 10 o'clock. Our top story - intensive searches continue around the sunken superyacht off the coast of Sicily.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: The coverage of this tragedy involving tycoons has been breathless compared to other drownings in these same waters, mostly of undocumented people crossing the Mediterranean in rafts. But this was a more than 180-foot luxury superyacht, anchored just a few hundred yards offshore. Grainy black-and-white video from a marina nearby shows lightning and what scientists say looks like a waterspout - a tornado-like column that can whip up in seconds, exacerbated by unusually warm seawater. It was such a hot night, those on board may have slept with the hatches open, which would have let water in when they capsized in darkness.

DOMENICO CIPOLLA: (Speaking Italian).

FRAYER: "They described the worst physical and psychological upheaval of their lives," says Domenico Cipolla, an Italian doctor who treated some of the survivors, including a mother and her 1-year-old infant.

Those on board were mostly British and wealthy, including the head of the investment bank Morgan Stanley International, and a mathematician and software mogul named Mike Lynch, who was acquitted of fraud charges in the U.S. earlier this summer.

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MIKE LYNCH: I knew I had done nothing wrong, and it was very important to me.

FRAYER: That's Lynch in one of his last interviews with the BBC, just after a jury found him innocent. This Mediterranean cruise was thought to have been a victory trip. His defense lawyer and family were with him.

Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Lauren Frayer covers India for NPR News. In June 2018, she opened a new NPR bureau in India's biggest city, its financial center, and the heart of Bollywood—Mumbai.

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