Dead body found floating near Paphos

THE REMAINS of half an unidentified human body have been found floating in the sea in the Paphos district, police said yesterday.

At around 6pm on Sunday, marine police received information that a body had been spotted floating in the sea in the Lara bay area. Police said the body was located and transported to shore, where authorities determined they were dealing with part of a body from the waist down, wearing grey trousers and black shoes.

State pathologist Sophoclis Sophocleous, who carried out the autopsy yesterday, told the Cyprus Mail it was impossible to identify the body, to assess its sex 100 per cent or racial background.

“It is probably a man. However we cannot tell his age, how long he has been in the sea or how he died,” he said.

Sophocleous said it was possible the body had been dumped in the sea from passing ships and floated into the Paphos district. Fish and other factors could be reasons to explain the condition of the body, he added.

“We have taken samples to carry out DNA tests and hope to use the information to uncover its identity by cross referencing the DNA results with possible missing persons files,” said Sophocleous.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.