Man dies in boat collision

A 30-YEAR-OLD man was killed yesterday and three others were injured after two boats collided near the Limassol port, police said.

The man, who was a passenger in an inflatable boat died from massive head injuries he sustained during the pre-dawn collision with a speed boat at the Prasinos Faros area near the entrance to the port.

A marine police spokesman said the 30-year-old was found unconscious around 200 metres from the point of collision.

“He was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival,” Haris Christodoulou told reporters.

State pathologist Nicolas Charalambous suggested the man was dead before falling in the sea.

“He has injuries on the left part of his head caused by the collision,” Charalambous said. “Death was caused by crushing fractures to the head.”

The man, 37, who drove the inflatable, was being treated at Limassol general hospital.

Two men who were in the other speedboat where rushed to a private clinic.

It is understood that the injuries of all three men were not life-threatening.

Police towed the inflatable, which bore extensive damage to its bow, to port while the only managed to recover several pieces of the speedboat, which sank.

“Recovery of the other boat has so far been impossible,” Limassol police officer Yiannakis Georgiou said.

A merchant shipping department spokesman said the circumstances of the accident will be investigated.

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.