Man dies after Vasiliko crane mishap

A local worker died in hospital on Tuesday hours after he was struck in the head by a crane hook during an incident at EAC’s Vasiliko power station in Limassol.

Local media reported that the incident took place at the power plant in Vasiliko, Limassol district, where a male worker was struck in the head and shoulders by a crane hook.

According to police, 56-year-old Andreas “Andy” Evangeli from Dherynia was assisting in the unloading of an electric power generator with the use of a crane. Around 10am, under circumstances still pending an investigation, a steel wire snapped and the hook fell on the worker, police said in a statement.

Evangeli, who was said to be conscious when emergency medics arrived, was rushed to the Emergency Room at Limassol General Hospital. He later succumbed to his injuries in the afternoon around 4pm.

Additional reports said the incident took place in a fenced area of the power plant, where Evangeli was working for a private company on a subcontract with EAC.

A day earlier, another local man suffocated to death, also in Limassol, when a retaining wall collapsed on him. Georgios Georgiou, a 54-year-old worker from Galata, was coating a retaining wall near a hill in Ayios Tychonas, when he suddenly got trapped under a huge mound of mud until emergency rescuers and sniffer dogs managed to retrieve his lifeless body five hours later.

A labour official told media that the retaining wall fatal incident could have been prevented by a temporary structure based on probability of a collapse during construction.