ROME -- The British tycoon Mike Lynch is among five people reported to be dead in the search for missing passengers after the sinking of a luxury yacht, the Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported Wednesday. Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and Chris Morvillo are the two other bodies to have been identified, La Repubblica has reported.

 Five bodies have been found by rescue teams on Wednesday afternoon, on the third day of operations since the yacht sank off the coast of Palermo on Monday.

 The victims were among six passengers unaccounted for after a freak tornado caused the yacht they were travelling on to capsize and sink on Monday morning. Bloomer's wife Judy, Morvillo's wife Neda, and Lynch's daughter Hannah are all still unaccounted for.

 Rescue operations continued on Wednesday after specialist divers made a breakthrough on Tuesday, managing to enter the yacht through a three-centimetre-thick glass window. Divers managed to enter the boat’s common spaces but were initially unable to reach the cabins, where it is believed the missing passengers were trapped.

 Specialist divers continue to face challenges searching the yacht, which has sunk to a depth of 49 metres and is at a 90-degree angle on its right side. Each immersion can only last 12 minutes at that depth, including two minutes for divers to reach the vessel and come back up to the surface. Entry into the cabins is also obstructed by various objects.

 Rescue teams are facing a race against time to rescue the missing passengers, as fears they have drowned become more concrete each day. But families of those unaccounted for are hoping their relatives could still be alive within an air bubble of the cabin. Divers were also hopeful this morning that the missing passengers could still be found alive.

 "For us, these are rescue operations and not recovery operations," one diver told Il Fatto Quotidiano. "Until we cannot find them, we are considering them still alive."

 The coast guard is also inspecting the boat through remote-controlled robots in an attempt to find any new openings which could grant divers access to the cabins. According to the coast guard, the mast and hull of the boat are still intact. New diving equipment from Genoa also arrived in Palermo on Tuesday, with hopes it will give rescue teams more time than the current 12 minute windows to search the boat, Il Mattino has reported.

 The 56-metre-long sailing boat, known as Bayesian and identified by a British flag, was carrying 22 passengers and crew in the harbour near Porticello when it was hit by a freak tornado at around 5 a.m on Monday morning. The chef of the boat’s crew, Ricardo Tomas, has been confirmed dead.

 A widely shared video shows the moment the yacht was hit by the waterspout, which was seen lit up before disappearing in less than a minute. The video is now being analysed by the public prosecutor's office of Termini Imerese, which has opened an investigation into culpable shipwreck. Investigators are looking into the hypothesis that the speed and magnitude of the water was so strong that the emergency system on-board the ship could not seal the yacht before water entered. It is also being considered whether the boat's skipper made the wrong decision to anchor the boat amid the weather warning or whether radar coverage was sufficient.

 Mike Lynch, the British technology tycoon known for founding Autonomy Corporation and recently acquitted for fraud charges, was travelling on the yacht when it sank. The ownership of the luxury boat is tied to Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife who survived the disaster.

 British, Irish, and New Zealand nationals are among those to have been saved. The fifteen people inside the lifeboat were rescued by the coast guard, with eight in a stable condition. A 1-year-old girl, Sofia, was also rescued in the lifeboat and was taken to Palermo's Children's Hospital as a precaution. The baby's mother Charlotte Golunski, 35, said she "was sleeping" when the boat capsized.

 "For two seconds, I lost my little girl in the water, but then I immediately hugged her amid the fury of the waves."

 "So many people were shouting," she added. "Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get into it."

 Divers and coastguard rescue teams have been searching the water today to find the missing passengers, as rescue divers search the hull of the boat which sank 49 metres. It had been reported that those missing might have been trapped in the boat's cabins when the storm hit.

 "In this moment, my prayers go to the missing people from the sinking of the yacht in Porticello," Roberto Lagalla, the mayor of Palermo, said on Monday. "I also want to thank the coast guard, the fire service, and all the emergency operation that responded immediately and is still carrying out operations."

 Among the survivors, as reported in Giornale di Sicilia, are Britons Ayla Ronald, 36, Matthew Fletcher, 41, James Emsilie, 35, and his wife, Charlotte, and daughter Sofia.