Italy boat disaster: Secret services agents among those killed as mystery surrounds sinking

The boat had been hired as part of a birthday celebration for one of the group from Israel.

Two Italian secret service agents – as well as a former Israeli security forces member – were among the four people who died when a tourist boat sank in an Italian lake at the weekend.

Intelligence service agents Claudio Alonzi, 62, and Tiziana Barnobi, 53, were killed when the boat went down during a storm on Lake Maggiore in the north of the country, alongside Israeli national Shimoni Erez, 50, and Anya Bozhkova, the Russian wife of the boat's captain, Claudio Carminati.

Mr Erez is reported to have previously served in the Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel.

The emergency services are trying to recover the bat which capsized on Lake Maggiore at the weekend. Picture: Getty Images

The boat was believed to be carrying around 23 passengers, who had travelled to Italy to celebrate a birthday, with meetings held with colleagues from the Italian intelligence services. The emergency services said 19 people had swum around 300m to shore or been rescued by boats and jet skis, but some of those had required hospital treatment. Italian media has claimed the boat, built in 1982, was designed to hold just 15.

"The bodies of four people have been recovered,” fire brigade spokesman Luca Cari said, after the disaster.

However, Italian media said the Israeli survivors had been quickly put on a military flight to Tel Aviv by Tuesday morning, with one of their vehicles rented for the trip abandoned at the side of the lake. Italians who had been on board the boat had left the hotel rooms and hospitals where they had been staying after the disaster.

The group had reportedly stopped at a restaurant, on the Piedmont shore of the lake, where they had enjoyed lunch before the trip on the Goduria boat, which has been described as a flat bottomed houseboat.

The boat sank on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

The vessel is advertised on bed and breakfast websites, including Booking.com, where it is marketed as one-bedroom accommodation, located in Lisanza, on the shore of Lake Maggiore. However, it is understood the boat’s captain and his wife usually lived on board.

A friend of Mr Carminati, Marina Morena, told Italian newspaper La Presse that he was an experienced sailor.

“He was an expert and it's not true that he went out in bad weather, the storm arrived suddenly, the storm wasn't predictable,” she said. Ms Morena said the boat’s captain had “lost everything” in the disaster. It is understood Mr Carminati and Ms Bozhkova had married in March.

Ms Morena added: “Claudio Carminati is a very good person. He loved the lake, he lived and played on the boat, that was his home.”

Meanwhile, the recovery of the boat is continuing by Italian authorities.

Divers from the fire brigades of Milan and Turin are said to be using “lifting balloons” to bring the hull to the surface, which has sunk to a depth of 16m.

An investigation has been launched by Italian authorities, who have said the incident appeared to have been caused by a “sudden violent whirlwind”.