Worker crushed to death on building site

A SYRIAN man was crushed to death yesterday as he was working on a building site in the Lakatamia area of Nicosia.

Maheid Hussein, a 30-year-old political asylum seeker and father of a young daughter, was working on the dig on Pompias Street where pipes were to be installed.

But at some point nearby co-workers unloading a plate compactor lost their grip on the heavy machinery, leading it to topple and fall on top of him.

Police have arrested his Cypriot employer and are on the lookout for a Syrian man who rushed Hussein to the Apollonion hospital and then disappeared.

Hussein was pronounced dead on arrival.

The man is said to have been the worker using the compactor.

“The victim died from massive external injuries but we will not announce the cause of death until the autopsy takes place”, said State Pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous yesterday.

According to Labour Inspector Eleni Koki-Gregoriou, who was at the scene yesterday, two of the machines that were said to have been close to where Hussein was killed had been moved from the crime scene arousing investigators’ suspicions.

The victim had arrived on the island just a few months ago.

The wanted Syrian man is described by police as being well-built, around 1.65metres tall and with long black hair. He was last seen driving a blue Mitsubishi Lancer registration KLQ 010.

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.