A lifeguard cannot be stationed at Aphrodite’s rock because it is a national monument, according to Paphos’s district officer Mary Lambrou.

She said on Wednesday that the beach falls under the jurisdiction of the forestry department and is not designated by the transport ministry as a beach for bathing, and that as a result no lifeguard station has been set up in the area.

She added that “it would not be right” to erect a lifeguard station on the beach.

Lambrou’s statement comes days after a 29-year-old man drowned while swimming at the beach on Sunday.

The man was swimming with a friend and became unable to swim, before being retrieved from the water unconscious.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at Paphos general hospital.