Bus-dweller forced into Strovolos home

A THREE-YEAR love affair between an old man and his bus finally ended yesterday when the municipality moved in with the bulldozer.

But 62-year-old Andreas Sotiriou agreed to go quietly to a new purpose- built municipal home in Strovolos.

Sotiriou had previously refused to move from his dilapidated bus in a Strovolos field for the homely comforts of TV, a proper bed and the luxury of electricity.

Nevertheless, Sotiriou said he lived like a “king” in his bus and enjoyed the company of his fellow drinking buddies who would come around and visit.

Finally, the welfare department persuaded Sotiriou that he had to move on to a more conventional abode and allow his bus to be removed and the site to be cleared.

Although he had been living in the bus for three-and-a-half years, Sotiriou has been sleeping rough since his early fifties.

Only time will tell if the elderly Strovolos man stays put in his new home or whether he takes to the open road again.

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.