A British man was stabbed in the neck and killed in Ayia Napa after he and a friend had a row with two locals over urinating in public, the girlfriend of one of the suspects has told Cyprus police.
George Low, a 22-year-old estate agent from Dartford, Kent, died and his friend, Ben Barker, was seriously wounded in a pre-dawn knife attack on Sunday as they holidayed in the coastal town, famous for its party atmosphere.
Low was stabbed in the neck, while Barker was stabbed in the back.
According to Cyprus police, a 48-year-old woman who appeared at a local court on Wednesday in connection with the case said her boyfriend had told her that he and a friend had carried out the attack after a row sparked by the tourists urinating in the street.
The Greek Cypriot woman also told the court she picked up her boyfriend from the resort shortly after the stabbing and helped him change clothes, then returned to collect his mobile telephone from a spot where he had hidden it.
A report by the Cyprus News Agency claimed that the woman, who was not named, and her boyfriend had been living together in her home in Larnaca for a year. The court ordered her into police custody for eight days to give investigators time to prepare a case against her as a potential accessory after the fact.
Police spokesperson Andreas Angelides told Associated Press authorities are still searching for the two alleged attackers, who have been identified as Mehmet Akpinar, 22, and Sali Ahmet, 42.
Pictures of the men and warrants for their arrest have been issued, and investigators who are treating the case as premeditated murder and attempted murder have appealed to locals to come forward with any information.
A third Turkish Cypriot is being sought who may have helped the suspects slip across the border to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot republic in the north of the island, according to the Cyprus News Agency.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since a 1974 Turkish invasion in the wake of a coup aiming at union with Greece. Cypriot authorities have no control over the north and cannot make arrests there.
Low’s mother, Helen, 47, said Barker and her son had been due to fly back home on Sunday. Her son had spent two previous seasons in the resort as a club rep and manager, and was last there in June celebrating his birthday.
His death had left the entire family “numb”, she said, adding: “We’re just heartbroken. We cannot believe something like this could happen to our son.”
• This article was amended on 18 August 2016 to clarify that the claim of urinating in public was made by the girlfriend of one of the suspects.
