By Charlie Charalambous
OUTRAGE greeted yesterday’s horrific murder in Limassol of a 52-year-old civil servant, who was killed in a rush-hour car bomb attack just minutes after taking his children to school.
Chief game warden Savvas Savva was in heavy traffic on Makarios Avenue, returning from a routine school run to drop off his young son and daughter, when a booby-trap exploded under his car seat.
Police believe the bombers waited for their victim to leave the children at school before detonating the device.
Official condemnation was swift. “The government will not compromise with murderers and extortionists,” said Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou. He described the murder as a “callous and hideous act”.
Justice Minister Nicos Koshis said no stone would be left unturned in the hunt for the killers. He said police are “determined to take every conceivable measure to solve this abominable crime”.
Koshis said he believed the “financial interests” of poachers were behind the bomb attack.
Hours after Koshis vowed to capture the killers, a 26-year-old unemployed man, Charalambos Panayi Spyrou, was arrested in connection with the bombing. He is expected to appear in court today.
Savva was head of the Limassol game service, which recently launched a drive to halt the illegal hunting of migratory birds at Akrotiri salt lake.
Friction between poachers and government officials was also thought to have been why a bomb was left outside a game warden’s home in Limassol last month. He was unhurt by the blast.
Police believe yesterday’s bomb was detonated by remote control, suggesting that the killers shadowed Savva’s car for some time in another vehicle.
The force of the 7.30am explosion blew the victim out of his car, and he landed some distance away in the road. He was rushed to Limassol hospital but died of his injuries minutes later.
The blast rocked Makarios Avenue, which was jammed with rush-hour traffic at the time.
Eyewitnesses said a packed school bus was in front of Savva’s departmental Pajero jeep when the bomb went off. Miraculously, no one else was hurt.
Windows were shattered by the explosion and uprooted trees were testament to its force.
After yesterday’s killing, hundreds of people, including public employees and lawyers, took to the streets of Limassol to demand more effective policing.
Political parties, hunters and environmentalists all issued statements condemning Savva’s murder.
Relatives of the victim said that Savva had met the Limassol police chief on Monday night, demanding that his game wardens be protected.
Koshis confirmed that such a meeting had taken place, but he said he was “not aware” that the issue of personal security had been raised by Savva.
Savva is reported to have compiled evidence implicating a specific person in the organised black market trade of protected game.
Limassol has gained a reputation as the island’s crime capital because of the frequency of gangland-related violence.
