Navy patrol boat kills swimming tourist

A British naval patrol boat killed a British man as he was swimming in the sea off the southern coast of Cyprus today, said a spokesman for the British military forces in Cyprus.

The identity of the man is being withheld, pending notification of next of kin, but it has been revealed he was a tourist who was swimming off a beach in the British Sovereign Base of Akrotiri.

“The base police have launched an immediate investigation into the incident,” spokesman Capt. Peter Thacker said.

Britain retained two sovereign bases on Cyprus after it granted independence to the former colony in 1960.