Forty-six-year-old Stavros Panayiotou singlehandedly walked into a blazing fire and saved a 30-year-old woman from burning alive.
His act of courage was one of 52 to be commended by police in an award ceremony yesterday for citizens who had contributed towards solving cases from January 1, 2007 until April 3 this year.
Among those honoured was Iacovos Kyriakou, who was killed while trying to stop an armed bank robber in Larnaca last year. His wife, Keti, accepted the award on his behalf.
Of the 52 men and women honoured for their contribution to society, 45 attended the ceremony. They each received a silver plague of St Irene, the police force’s patron saint and a single flower.
Police chief Iacovos Papacostas thanked the group and called them “allies” in the police’s “fight on crime”. He said they had each stared injustice in the face and with their bravery contributed towards making society a safer, more peaceful place.
Papacostas added that he was grateful for their help, but that they always had to remember to protect themselves first.
“Thank you and well done, but remember always be careful and protect yourselves,” the chief said.
Two months ago Savvas Tsikouras, 67, stopped a burglary in motion outside his Limassol home. Unable to sleep he woke up at 3am and walked out on to his balcony for a breath of fresh air.
“I noticed a lit torch flickering at the house opposite me and found it strange,” he said.
The father of two policemen stationed in Limassol and Paphos, Tsikouras said he immediately thought to the authorities.
“I gave them a detailed account of what was happening minute by minute until they arrived on the scene. One man was inside attempting to burgle the place and the other was outside on the lookout,” he said.
Tsikouras said he had felt it his duty to both his country and society to tip-off police.
“I have two sons in the force and I love the police. I want to help them as much as I can… I didn’t expect to be honoured, and I would do it all over again if I had to,” he said.
Stavros Panayiotou, 46, singlehandedly walked into a blazing fire and saved a 30-year-old woman from burning alive.
Panayiotou, who is the father of three adult daughters, said he had been driving home after a trip to the bakery at around 10am on Green Monday when he heard someone calling for help from a first floor apartment balcony.
“The apartment was on fire and he was outside calling for help. He said his wife was still trapped inside,” Panayiotou said.
The Limassol merchant said he didn’t stop to think for a second. Pumping with adrenalin he raced into the building and banged on the apartment door. When the woman opened the door, he reached in, flung her over his shoulder, and raced downstairs.
The 30-year-old woman, who he said had looked about 70 due to the burns she had sustained, was burning alive. Panayiotou suffered minor burns to his own arms from where he clutched her enflamed body to him.
The 46-year-old said he wrapped her in his own shirt until paramedics arrived on the scene to transport her to hospital.
“There was nothing else I could do for her. I just tried to keep people away from the building because they had gathered in the street and knocked on neighbouring homes to get people out and away from the building,” he said.
The 30-year-old is currently in the Intensive Care Unit having suffered 40 per cent burns to her body.
“I tried to go back to get the husband but I couldn’t get in. Finally some other people helped. They put up a ladder and went up and got him down. His only concern was his wife. I told her we had saved her and he seemed relieved,” Panayiotou said.
The man died the following day having sustained 99 per cent burns to his body.
“He must have tried to get into the apartment to save his wife numerous times but the blaze was too fierce and he couldn’t get in. Thankfully I got there when I did or she would have died too. I’m only upset he couldn’t be saved,” Panayiotou said.
The 46-year-old said for two days he had been unable to sleep or eat from the shock of the ordeal. Now, almost two months later, the nightmares had finally stopped.
“It was a horrific experience. My instinct just kicked in. I didn’t stop to think for a second. Thankfully I didn’t or she never would have lived.”
Although he had risked his life to save others, Panayiotou said if he had to, he’d do it again.
“I’ve tried to see the woman since the accident but was told her condition is still too serious. When she is a bit better I’ll go,” he said.
The Romanian couple had only arrived in Cyprus three days before the horrific accident occurred. Apparently there had been a gas leak and unknowingly the 42-year-old man had lit a cigarette causing the fatal explosion.
Andreas Achilleos Kissopodas, 70, assisted police in the arrest of 46-year-old Constantin Solomon in May last year for the murder of 53-year-old George Diomidous.
Solomon was found guilty and jailed for 17 years last month.
“I saw him and the woman hidden in the bushes in my field while I was out farming,” Kissopodas said.
The 70-year-old said he had heard about the murder in the sleepy village of Meniko the night before and had been aware a manhunt was underway to find the culprit and the victim’s pregnant partner.
“I saw him but pretended I hadn’t because if he’d just murdered someone the previous day I knew there was nothing stopping him from killing me,” he said.
Solomon, who had been having an affair with Mihaela Fotic, the 28-year-old girlfriend of Diomidous, ambushed and stabbed his victim six times when he returned from the supermarket with Foltic. The woman told the court Solomon threatened her with the knife and ordered her to follow him into his car, in which they drove off.
They spent the night in a nearby field, which was where they spotted by Kissopodas.
“Since I saw them, why not tell the police. Everyone should help the police. I’d heard about the case and saw them and because it was near where the murder had taken place I knew there was no chance it couldn’t be them,” the farmer said.
Frixos Economides, 70, was commended for his honesty and integrity after finding £2,000 on Nicosia’s Makarios Avenue in May last year.
“I was walking alone in the street and there was no one about when I found a sealed package of money lying on the pavement,” he said.
“I bent down and picked it up and saw it was money. Obviously the person had been to the bank and then must have dropped it on the way.”
Economides said he had not even considered taking the money for a second.
“I wasn’t tempted at all. The minute it was in my pocket I felt my leg burning and wanted to get rid of it. I thought to myself this doesn’t belong to me and took it to the police station immediately.”
The 70-year-old said he doesn’t know if the owner of the money was ever found.
“In that person’s misfortune he was fortunate (because it was I who had found it and never would have kept it),” he said.
Twenty-five-year-old bank clerk Christos Piyiotis, chased down and caught a Bulgarian man who grabbed a UNICEF donation can from his Laiki bank counter and ran off. He held the petty thief until police arrived.
“He was young and harmless. I just ran after him and caught him until the police came,” he said.
Theodora Eleftheriou, Angeliki Anthousi, Popi Chrysostomou, Chrysanthi Kounnou, and Margarita Kouali were commended for their contribution in identifying the remains of 30-year-old Anna Vasileva, who was murdered by her husband in August 2006.
The forensic team was called in to identify charred skeletal remains of the Kyrgyzstan woman in a barrel outside her husband’s, Christoforos Charalambous, home village of Askas.
“Police had found bones and we were called in to analyse the remains,” Anthousi said.
“We had to determine what sex she was and how she had died,” Chrysostomou said.
The team determined the bones belonged to a woman who had been burned.
Charalambous was jailed for life for the murder of Vasileva and her lover, Yiannos Demosthenous, in August 2007.
Andreas Onoufriou, 49, and Costas Counnas, 50, were two of five people honoured for helping catch two Larnaca Co-op bank robbers and retrieving almost all of the €60,000 stolen.
The incident occurred about two months ago. Onoufriou and Counnas were driving past the bank when they spotted two men putting on hoods and entering a bank.
“I told him to stop the car so we could investigate what was going on,” Onoufriou said.
Both men got out and peering into the bank saw what appeared to be an armed robbery in progress. It later emerged that the ‘guns’ the men had used were fake.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Onoufriou said.
Counnas called police from his mobile and alerted them to what was happening.
Suddenly the two robbers ran out, with the money in hand. They raced down the street, with Onoufriou and Counnas on their heels.
“Money was spilling out and we rushed to pick it up, while on the phone to police telling them what was going on,” Counnas said.
As the pursuit progressed three other men joined the chase. Police arrived at the scene and cut off the two thieves thanks to the constant telephone contact with Counnas. The pair was recently jailed for eight years each.
“We managed to receive most of the money. The bank told us only €1,000 was missing,” Counnas said.
All five men were also given an award of €500 from the bank.
