Italian firefighters said Monday that they have recovered four bodies from a northern Italian lake after a tourist boat capsized in a sudden, violent storm.
Four people died when a tourist boat capsized on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy in strong winds, the fire brigade said on Monday.
The sixteen-metre-long boat overturned on Sunday evening off Lisanza, at the southern end of the lake, when the weather suddenly turned stormy.
"The bodies of four people have been found," fire brigade spokesman Luca Cari said.
The president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, described on Sunday evening a "very serious incident" caused by a "whirlwind".
Around 20 survivors among the passengers were pulled from the water by other boats or were able to swim to shore, Italian media reported.
The boat was carrying both Italian and foreign tourists and sank rapidly, taking one of the victims with it, according to these press reports.
A video filmed by the fire brigade showed a search helicopter flying over rough waters where chairs and other debris were floating.
Lake Maggiore, in the southern Alps, is Italy's second-largest lake and a popular tourist destination.