A merchant ship crew member in need of medical attention was airlifted to the Nicosia General Hospital early on Thursday morning by the police air operations unit.

“Last night at 11pm, we received information that a crew member of the Ukrainian-flagged merchant ship Izmail while sailing 50 nautical miles west of Cyprus required medical help,” the search and rescue coordination centre said.

It activated the national search and rescue plan Nearchos, mobilising a helicopter from the police aviation operations unit with a specialised nurse from the ambulance service of the state health services organisation (Okypy) to airlift the crew member in question to the Nicosia general hospital.

The crew member was safely taken to the hospital at around 01.40am on Thursday.