Victim had his hearing aid removed
A BRITISH tourist yesterday described seeing her boyfriend killed on Thursday by a British bases (SBA) patrol boat as he snorkelled near Lady’s Mile beach.
Carl Wood, 40, had been swimming off a catamaran leisure cruise near the Akrotiri military base in the Limassol area when the incident happened at around 1pm.
Lynn Woodward, 39, said that she and ten other tourists on the catamaran had tried to warn her boyfriend and the two-man crew of the military boat about the impending collision.
Woodward, who lived with Wood in Bolton-on-Dearne, South Yorkshire, said “a big, green boat came along at really fast speed and went over him. They didn’t see him. We tried to tell them that he was there but I don’t think that they knew.”
She added that Wood “was partially deaf and wouldn’t have heard the boat coming. We knew it was going to go over him but I thought it was going to be alright. We were all trying to tell the people on the boat to stop but it was moving at such a speed. I don’t think they knew what we were trying to say. They were going that fast and were so close that it was over in seconds. I heard him scream and I saw blood in the water.”
Wood, who has two children from a previous marriage and was a computer engineer, had removed his hearing aid, Woodward said.
Wood was picked up by the patrol boat crew who rushed him to the SBA hospital in Akrotiri, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, a Cyprus Police statement said.
SBA spokesman, Captain Peter Thacker said “an immediate and thorough investigation has been launched by the base’s police, which is expected to take some time.”
Cyprus Police have since arrested the captain of the catamaran and the director of the unnamed company, for endangering human life at sea. It is believed the catamaran had logged an incorrect number of passengers for the voyage.
Wood had arrived on the island only a few days ago and was staying at the Atlantica Hotel in the Limassol tourist district.
The area where the accident happened is used by commercial and private shipping, as well as naval vessels.
