By Jean Christou
POLICE have arrested three men in connection with a murder at a Limassol petrol station in the early hours of yesterday.
Marios Panayides, 30, from Platres, living in Limassol, was shot six times in the chest and abdomen by a hooded man who escaped in a black sports car, police said.
The shooting happened at 4.00am at the Petrolina petrol station at Ayios Filaxeos Street in Limassol where Panayides had gone to pick up his car after being dropped off by a friend.
Police yesterday arrested Nicos Nicolou 28, unemployed, Yerothios Christodoulou 38, alias Ropas, and Ara Harutyunian, 29. They were all arrested at Pyrgos Tylliras in the Paphos district.
The killing of Panayides is the latest in a spate of Limassol murders connected to underworld turf wars for control of prostitution, gambling and drugs in the town.
Panayides was said to have been close to the notorious Aeroporos family from Kolossi, one of whom, Andros Aeroporos, 32, was shot and killed in his car in August.
Weeks later an attempt was made on the life of another friend of Aeroporos’, cabaret owner Sotiris Athinis 44, the brother of Melios Athinis, also gunned down in his car in Limassol in 1994.
Panayides was himself said to be under police surveillance.
He was murdered, ironically, as police were out in full force in Limassol checking vehicles. According to a police report they had carried out five vehicle checks between midnight and 2.00am, one of which was on the victim.
Panayides had parked his car at the petrol station and gone with a friend, returning at 4am to his vehicle, where the killer was lying in wait. In all eleven empty shells were found at the scene.
The victim was found lying in a pool of blood in the forecourt of the petrol station shortly afterwards by a salesman who alerted police.
He was rushed to Limassol hospital and immediately operated upon but he died an hour later.
The victim, an unemployed part-time bouncer at various Limassol night clubs, reportedly told police before he died that his attacker was well-built and had been dressed all in black.
According to police, Panayides said his attacker escaped from the back of the petrol station and, according to a witness, got into a black sports car and sped away.
