One dead, six injured on day one of the hunting season

By Jennie Matthew

THE HUNTING season started at dawn on Sunday and within hours one man was dead and six had been injured in the rampage to gun down partridge and hares.

Costas Spyrides, a 65-year-old retired teacher from Limassol, was found dead from a heart attack near Vikla by a fellow hunter from Sotira.

Officers from the Fire Brigade had to carry the body to the nearest road, from where it could be driven to the Limassol morgue.

State pathologist Eleni Antoniou, who later performed the autopsy, said he died of a heat attack, there were no external injuries and no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

Spyrides died at 6.30am. Forty-five minutes earlier, Loukas Mousoulos, 24, from Tersefanou, was shot in the left eye while hunting with his brother in Mersini near Oroklini.

There were another five injuries before 11am.

At 7am, Stelios Stylianou, 31 from Kato Pyrgos, slightly injured himself near Pigenia village.

At about 7.10am, Spyros Georgiou, 64 from Phrenaros, slipped and fell six metres into a ravine, while on the stake out for prey near Layia village.

The alarm was raised and an ambulance from Lefkara rushed him to casualty at Larnaca General Hospital, where he was kept in for treatment.

At 8am, Andreas Menelaou, 43, from Limassol, sustained bullet wounds to his left eye and face out hunting with his brother, in the open near Ayios Tychonas.

His brother took him to Limassol General Hospital, where he was also kept in for treatment.

Eleftherios Eleftheriou, 36 from Kyperounda fell at around 10.50am, when his gun went off and inadvertently injured his right side.

He was taken to the village hospital and from there, driven by ambulance to Limassol General for observation.

Finally, a 15-year-old high school student, Andreas Andreou from Astromeritis was shot in the body and face in Potamiou.

His father took him to Nicosia General Hospital for a check-up.

Police were yesterday treating all injuries as accidents.

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