Italian tourist drowns in Limassol

A 45-YEAR-Old Italian tourist drowned in the sea near his hotel at Amathus in Limassol yesterday morning.

Water sports operator George Demetriou noticed the man half an hour before the assigned lifeguard was to go on duty. The incident happened at around 9.30am.

“I saw a man floating in the water without moving or calling for help,” he told reporters at the scene. The Italian was dragged from the sea by other swimmers and first aid was administered at the scene until the ambulance arrived. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Limassol Hospital. He had been on holiday with his wife.

Lifeguard Panicos Arabis called on the authorities to ensure that lifeguards were present on the island’s beaches around the clock. He told reporters their hours of work were 10am to 6pm only and that in this case the lack of a permanent lifeguard presence had cost a man’s life.

“This is the fourth episode we’ve had in two weeks,” he said. “We saved three of them because the incidents happened during our working hours. Unfortunately today this man came here earlier than the lifeguard’s hours of work and because of that he lost is life.”

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.