Police are investigating how an unhandcuffed 18-year-old opened the inner door of a police van and escaped at Larnaca court on Monday, as two other detainees shouted for officers.
The escape came hours after Larnaca court rejected his lawyer’s objection to his detention, and days after a 19-year-old escaped from police cells in Lakatamia. An administrative investigation has been ordered, which is also seeking to establish whether any officers were near the van at the time.
The 18-year-old had been placed in the van’s holding cage with two other detainees. Preliminary evidence shows the officer transporting him closed the cage’s inner iron door, but the outer door at the back of the vehicle was left open because more detainees were still to be transferred, Phileleftheros understands.
How he managed to open the inner door and run off is under investigation, according to official sources. The two other detainees, who could also have escaped, started shouting “Police, police”, the same sources said.
He had been arrested in September on suspicion of car theft, and a case has been filed against him.
The 18-year-old is known to Larnaca police for burglaries and thefts. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he drove a stolen car in Larnaca in November 2024 that crashed, killing an 18-year-old woman in the back seat. He was 16 at the time, left the scene and was arrested later.
He served his sentence and was released a few months ago. He has since reportedly been arrested twice more for theft, and was acquitted in one of those cases.
