Youth drowns in ‘competition’ tragedy

 

A 16-year-old Cypriot youth drowned at a crowded swimming pool in Ayia Napa yesterday during a competition with a friend to see who could hold his breath the longest.

Modestos Kyriacou, who worked at a pub in Xylophagou, was visiting a friend who worked at an Ayia Napa hotel when the accident happened at around noon. The hotel’s pool area was packed with tourists at the time.

The two youths decided to compete on holding their breath underwater and Kyriacou lost consciousness. By the time his friend realised something was wrong it was too late. Kyriacou was rushed to a clinic in Ayia Napa but doctors failed to revive him. A post mortem will be carried out 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.