Worker on ship anchored off Limassol dies (updated)

A foreign worker has lost his life in a labour accident on board a ship docked at Limassol port, police said.

Limassol police spokesman Lefteris Kyriacou said the 38-year-old man was working on a Bahamas-flagged ship at a height of eight metres using flammable material.

Under circumstances still under investigation, he said, a fire started and the flammable caught light burning both the man and the rope that was supporting him, causing him to fall onto the deck.

Along with the doctor of the ship, he was taken to the Limassol port and from there by ambulance to Limassol hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Other workers near him were reportedly using welding materials.

An autopsy will be carried out by state coroner Angeliki Papeta on Monday.