Some chicks missing from Easter table after highway ‘carnage’

AUTHORITIES had to close off traffic on the Larnaca-Limassol highway on Thursday after a trailer truck’s container came loose, spilling tonnes of ice-packed chicken onto the tarmac.

The incident took place around 3pm. The vehicle was carrying the consignment from Limassol to Larnaca. At a bend near the Kofinou junction, the truck’s container became disengaged from the carriage, the force causing the vehicle to violently veer to the left.

As a result, the container slipped from the carriage and crashed onto the highway embankment. The tarmac was littered with the cargo – some 27 tonnes of packaged chicken.

A crane lorry was later dispatched to move the truck, which flipped over, as well as the container and carriage.

The truck’s 60-year-old driver sustained light injuries and was taken to Larnaca general hospital for tests.

No one else was hurt in the incident, as at the time the stretch of road was clear, police said.

Authorities later began the task of clearing the cargo from the tarmac. Traffic on the highway was diverted for several hours.

The ‘carnage’ at Kofinou could mean a relative shortage of poultry for the Easter feasts, but there will certainly be no lack of red meat, as around 30,000 lambs have been put to the slaughter for the holidays, according to the Agriculture minister.