Sailor rescued in dark five hours after falling into Mediterranean

Ship from which sailor fell overboard finds him crying out for help in dead of night more than 100 miles off Cyprus

A sailor was rescued unharmed from the dark waters of the eastern Mediterranean early on Sunday nearly five hours after falling off a commercial ship.

Cypriot authorities said the 24-year-old Lebanese national needed no medical attention after the Nivin, the Panamanian-flagged vehicles carrier from which he had fallen 18 metres (60ft) into the water, plucked him from the sea.