Two drown in separate accidents

TWO men died in suspected drownings in two separate incidents yesterday, police said.

Soteris Antoniou, 63, from Limassol was found floating at the bottom of the sea in the Ayios Georgios Alamanos area near Pentakomo at around 11am by underwater fishermen. He was pulled to shore but efforts to resuscitate him proved fruitless.

Police said Antoniou was found with diving gear and a harpoon. An autopsy on Monday will determine whether he drowned or may have died of other causes.

Later in the day, a 25-year-old Syrian man drowned in the Paphos district when he dived in the area known as Adonis Baths. Sarbast Hadji, who was a permanent resident of Paphos, died when he dived into the natural waterfall head first. He had gone to visit the freshwater baths with his brother and a friend.

The incident took place at around 1pm when Hadji climbed on to a rock and dived into the water which has a depth of one metre to five metres. He came up but then went down again and did not resurface for 10 minutes, and his brother and friend failed to locate his body due to the murkiness of the water.

Other visitors to the area finally helped retrieve the 25-year-old’s body. An ambulance was called to the scene and he was transported to Paphos general hospital where duty doctors pronounced him dead, police said.