Four tourists killed in crash

By Martin Hellicar

FOUR Iranian tourists, three men and a woman, were killed when their hire- car collided head-on with a lorry on the Pomos to Polis road in the Paphos district yesterday morning.

The driver of the car, a Swiss visitor, and another Iranian passenger, both women, were seriously injured in the accident and were being treated in Paphos hospital last night. The lorry driver was less seriously hurt.

Police said the saloon car driven by 29-year-old Marlis Huber veered on to the wrong side of the coast road and smashed into the truck, driven by 35- year-old Kato Pyrga villager Klitos Theodorou Kotzas. The accident happened at about 11.35am. Witnesses said it took rescue crews about an hour to extricate the victims from the wreckage of the car. Unconfirmed reports said the lorry was overturned by the force of the impact.

Three of the victims died at the scene and the fourth died in hospital shortly afterwards.

Those killed were 39-year-old Ismail Ashrafabasi, Hamidreza Sharifi Nejad and Afshin Heidarpour Hassan, both 27, and 30-year-old Jaleh Charifi Nejad. The injured passenger was 25-year-old Mastaneh Ashrosabadi.

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