State troubled over Ayia Napa mob wars

Investigators are reportedly focusing on a person of interest in Sunday’s Ayia Napa shooting, believed to have been a mob-hit-gone-wrong against a businessman and former chairman of a local football club.

(Click here for an update to the story)

Law enforcement authorities and the public have been on edge following a shooting in Ayia Napa, in the wee hours Sunday morning, which resulted in for innocent bystanders being hospitalized in critical condition.

The incident took place around 2am on Krio Nero Avenue when an unknown male, wearing gloves and a hoodie, walked towards the Liquid Café Bar and started shooting at the window panes, injuring four people inside.

Police investigators obtained statements from a number of witnesses, including people associated with Costas Kritikos, who is believed to have been the main target in the shooting. Investigators were also seeking general statements from people suspected to have links to criminal activity or networks.

Kritikos, a local businessman and former chairman Ayia Napa FC, had been at the pub the morning of the shooting but reports said he had left around 1:40am, some 20 minutes before the incident.

Four people, who had been sitting at Kritikos’ table according to local media, were seriously injured. A woman aged 26 and three men, two 38-year-olds and one aged 32, were rushed to the ER where doctors said they were in critical condition but not in immediate danger.

Police Chief Kypros Michaelides, who visited the scene of the crime following the incident, assured Justice Minister George Savvides that investigators would get to the bottom of the case.

Ayia Napa police did not offer additional details on the shooting victims while some media described them as innocent bystanders.

“This is definitely one aspect that ought to make us all even more worried,” Savvides said.

Media reports on Monday morning said authorities had a person of interest, identified only as an adult male, who appeared in security video footage walking outside the pub and talking on the phone.

According to additional reports, investigators were trying to ascertain whether the person of interest could also have been the shooter.

Police are treating the case as a possible mob war in the world of organized crime.