Tourists turn on man filming hotel guests

By Constantinos Psillides

A 19-YEAR-OLD man from Bulgaria was arrested on Tuesday night at around 10pm, after tourists at a Protaras hotel apparently thought he was a kidnapper, police said.

According to the Police Press and Information Office (PPIO), the suspect was filming tourists on his phone while they were partying in the hotel’s pool area.

“The tourists thought that he was filming the children, which of course angered them and proceeded to attack him,” said an official with the PPIO, adding that the 19-year-old was immediately escorted off the premises by hotel security guards and police were notified.

“Officers arrived at the scene and proceeded to question the suspect and seize his phone. His home was also searched but the investigation so far suggests that the suspect’s intention wasn’t to kidnap the children but to film the partying tourists. We did not find anything on his phone or in his house that suggests otherwise,” said the official said.

The 19-year-old was released while police continue the investigation by taking statements from all tourists present at the scene.

The case raised a red flag immediately after Scottish daily “The Courier” reported on Wednesday that a man from Dundee claimed that a gang of men he described as “eastern European” tried to kidnap his three children, two boys and a girl.

The man, identified as Greg Letford, reportedly told police that the gang tried to bundle his children in a pick-up truck.

While the daily reported that several members of the gang were apprehended, the PPIO said that only the young Bulgarian was arrested.

This version of events was also confirmed by the hotel’s manager, Giannos Michaelides.

“A man was escorted outside the hotel’s premises on Tuesday night at around ten, after being found near the pool area. That man was neither a guest nor was he employed by the hotel. Once found he was escorted off the premises by our security and police were notified,” he told the Cyprus Mail.