Cypriot dies on boat evacuating Lebanon

A 75-year-old Turkish Cypriot man died aboard a boat which was evacuating people from Lebanon to Turkey on Thursday night.

The man, named as Said Ezbek, originally hailed from the Nicosia district village of Neo Chorio.

He suffered a heart attack while aboard the boat and was then transferred by helicopter to the Gulseren army barracks outside Famagusta. From there, he was taken to the Famagusta state hospital’s morgue.

The north’s ‘foreign ministry’ and Turkey’s embassy in northern Nicosia both offered their condolences for the man’s death.

Ezbek was one of 966 people who had boarded the ship in Beirut bound for the Turkish Mediterranean city of Mersin.

Of the 966, 878 were Turkish nationals, 24 were Turkish Cypriots, and 64 were first degree relatives of either Turkish nationals or Turkish Cypriots on board.