The five minors who assaulted a food courier on Saturday “showed great remorse for their actions,” Limassol police spokesman Lefteris Kyriacou said on Tuesday.
Kyriacou said the police have also spoken to people who witnessed the incident in the Limassol area of Ayios Antonios, who confirmed the reports of assault and robbery against the group.
The five minors, four 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old, were charged and released on Monday night.
According to the police, they ordered food through an online app. When the courier arrived he was threatened by the group of young people, who were armed with knives and bats.
They took the food without paying and stole the courier’s moped.
Later in the evening, the driver found out about the whereabouts of the group and the moped. Along with three other individuals, all Pakistani nationals like him, he headed to the Ayios Ioannis park and confronted the minors.
There, they were attacked by a larger group of unknown people.
According to the courier’s account of the facts that unfolded, around 15 people assaulted him and his friends at the park.
The four men attempted to flee, but were stopped by the group, who beat them with clubs.
At some point, the food courier managed to escape the attack, took his motorbike, and went to the police station to report the crime.
Following the incident, police went to Limassol general hospital where they found two friends of the courier, aged 34 and 38.
The two were kept for treatment, as doctors said their condition was serious but stable. The 34-year-old sustained fractures to his head, and right arm, while the 38-year-old had a fracture on his knee and lacerations.
Kyriacou on Tuesday said that police are also attempting to identify the larger group of people who attacked the courier and his friends at Ayios Ioannis park.
A 22-year-old man was arrested in connection to the same case on Sunday, and has been remanded for eight days.
President Nikos Christodoulides issued a statement condemning the incident on Tuesday, in addition to the attack on a Turkish Cypriot girl over the weekend in Ayia Napa.
The president, was quoted as stating that the episodes do not appear to have been racially motivated.
Nevertheless, they were to be condemned as unacceptable and delinquent behaviour.