A 30-YEAR-old Briton was yesterday forced to cancel his holiday wedding after he and three friends were seriously injured in a violent Ayia Napa brawl at the weekend.
One of the men, Anthony Stephenson, 40, is in a coma fighting for his life at Larnaca general hospital, police said.
Stephenson, the groom Danny Candlin, Dean Martin, 41, and his son Luke, were out celebrating Candlin’s stag night at the Ambassaden bar in the town square when the incident occurred, police said.
The incident broke out at around 2am, when, according to witnesses, an incident involving 17-year-old Luke and a female British tourist prompted the bar’s Cypriot bouncer to intervene.
The bouncer is alleged to have said something to the teenager and then slapped him across the face. The youth’s friends are then said to have stepped in, leading to the involvement of other locals at the bar.
Famagusta district CID deputy head Detective John Kapnoulas said that within seconds things had escalated until the situation “exploded out of control”.
Conflicting reports said the four Britons were chased from the bar by a mob of over 40 people coming at them from all directions. Bottles, chairs and sticks were also allegedly hurled at them as they ran for their lives.
But police limited the chase to “over five people” who were seen running after the holidaymakers.
“They could have been foreigners or Cypriot,” Kapnoulas said.
The detective said the four Britons only managed to run 40 metres down the road until they reached the town’s monastery where, under circumstances being investigated, they jumped over a wall and plunged down a five-metre drop.
“Two of the men said they were hit and fell, another said he was scared and jumped and the fourth man couldn’t remember,” the detective said.
The one who could not remember was Stephenson. Kapnoulas said officers had managed to speak to the 40-year-old before he lost consciousness but that due to the severity of his injuries he’d been unable to say how he’d hurt himself.
“Hopefully he will recover… Just because he couldn’t remember then, it does not mean he won’t remember later on. He was very seriously injured when we spoke to him,” the CID officer said.
State pathologist Nicholas Charalambous told the Cyprus Mail the incident had left 40-year-old Stephenson in a coma, with a fractured cheek and on a respirator. Martin sustained a broken arm and fingers as well as stitches to his head and chin. The chin wound was inflicted after he was struck with a broken bottle. Candlin, whose wedding had to be cancelled because of the incident, suffered a broken arm, while Martin’s son Luke suffered a fractured nose.
Kapnoulas said it would have been very dark and the men, unfamiliar with the area, would not have known about the five-metre drop on to the rocks beneath the wall.
“Alcohol is to blame for this incident,” the officer added.
“From something stupid and for no special reason things escalated and exploded and now someone could die.”
Kapnoulas said nobody knows the identity of the young girl who had sparked the row or if she was at the bar alone with other tourists or with other Cypriots.
“She’s just vanished,” the detective said.
“I hope I could trace her but it would be very hard. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack… Ayia Napa has a lot of tourists at the moment and it’s unlikely that even if she hears about what happened she’ll consider the implications and come forward.”
The detective said two men had been arrested on charges of attempted murder in connection with the incident, including the bar owner and the bouncer. Eyewitnesses told police both men had hit the Britons. The bouncer is also said to have used a baton.
“The owner was also arrested because he has an obligation to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen on his premises,” he said.
A Famagusta court yesterday remanded the two suspects in custody for eight days.
Kapnoulas said investigators had taken around 40 statements and that he could not rule out more arrests.
The detective said both sides involved had told police a different version of events.
“Both sides are hiding something,” he said.
The British High Commission is providing consular assistance to those involved and their friends and family.
