Body found inside trunk in north Nicosia

A bad smell coming from a car near a school in north Nicosia led to the discovery of a dead body in the trunk, with Turkish Cypriot police investigating the murder of a foreign national.

According to Turkish Cypriot media, concerned citizens noticed a foul smell in broad daylight coming from a parked vehicle near a school in north Nicosia on Monday. Police were notified and immediately sealed off the area before inspecting the vehicle.

Reports said a male corpse was discovered wrapped in a blanket inside the trunk of a car. The body was later said to belong to 33-year-old Nigerian national Obasanjo Adeola Owoyale, who went missing on July 1 according to local reports.

Based on preliminary findings, Owoyale is believed to have been killed elsewhere, then wrapped in a blanket and placed in the trunk of the vehicle. Someone then drove the car and disposed of the body by abandoning the vehicle with the dead body inside.

Reports said police were examining security camera footage in the area to see whether a suspect who left the car might have been captured on video. Additional reports said the car was registered to the victim, while the Turkish Cypriot licence plate was seen clearly in video footage recorded by media as well as local residents.

In some videos streaming live on Facebook, concerned citizens and viewers kept expressing their frustration in real time over the incident, noting that murders were on the rise and called for more security cameras in the area.

In the south, another man from Africa bled to death back in May following a violent altercation, with Greek Cypriot police attributing his death to a possible turf war.

The victim, a 28-year-old male from Cameroon, had been chased and attacked with a glass bottle, while a Nigerian suspect had been captured on security camera footage and later prosecuted.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between the two murders.