Guardsman killed in road smash

A 23-year-old National Guard officer was killed on the Kofinou to Larnaca road yesterday after an army truck driven by a 19-year-old soldier veered off course and overturned.

According to police, second Lieutenant Michalis Christodoulou and the truck driver, Private Christos Vassiliou, were heading back to their battalion in Larnaca in a convoy when, at around 11.50, Vassiliou lost control of his truck, which overturned crushing Christodoulou to death.

Both men were rushed to Larnaca hospital but doctors pronounced Christodoulou dead on arrival. Vassiliou was seriously injured but doctors said his condition was not critical.

Christodoulou’s exact cause of death will be determined after an autopsy expected to be carried out by State Pathologist Sofocles Sofocleous today.

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.