Woman brutally murdered in her hotel apartment

Police are searching for a suspect in connection with the death of a woman from Ukraine, who was found tied up and gagged in her own apartment in Limassol.

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A 30-year-old woman from Ukraine was found dead in her hotel apartment in Limassol's coastal borough of Potamos tis Germasogeias on Sunday early morning, around 12:50am, when a concerned female friend reportedly entered the flat with the help of the building manager.

Viewer discretion advised – description of violent death below

State forensic examiners Angeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou conducted an autopsy at the scene, with police saying the woman was found tied up and gagged while she also had facial injuries.

Additional reports said the woman was naked with bruises all over her body, her hands were bound with zip ties, her mouth had been gagged using a towel, while there were cable ties and a piece of cloth around her neck.

Neither the name nor ethnicity of the victim were shared with the media while her age, said to be officially 30, also appeared as 35 in some reports.

Police on Sunday morning said they were looking for 25-year-old Erkan Alkan, described by local media as a Turkish asylum seeker, in connection with the case that was being handed as a premeditated murder investigation.

Media reports said police linked the suspect to evidence gathered at the scene.

It was understood that the victim was residing temporarily in the Republic of Cyprus under supplementary protection given to people fleeing the war in Ukraine. But the time of her exact arrival on the island was not immediately established.