STABBED airman Christopher Sweeney was continuing his recovery in a Cyprus hospital today.

The Bolton family of the RAF man told the BEN that the 28-year-old corporal was making "slow but steady progress" on the mend from a five-hour operation to remove part of his intestine.

An attacker, believed to be a Greek Cypriot, plunged a blade right through Christopher as he walked home from a restaurant to his brother Martin's home in Vryssoules, near Dhekelia, on Thursday.

The knife missed a main artery by millimetres and the attack has left him with a 10-inch scar on his stomach.

But today step-mum Carole Sweeney, of Fryant Close, Blackrod, Bolton, told the BEN his family was just relieved Christopher was still alive.

"Chris is in a lot of pain and very lonely in a foreign hospital," she said. "His attacker intended to take his life, but the main thing is that he is going to better."

British military police and local detectives are continuing investigations on the island, but Christopher's attacker is still at large. The motive for the unprovoked stabbbing is also unknown.

Christopher, who is based in Holland and was visiting his brother's young family for a week-long holiday, could be moved from Larnaca General Hospital to a British military hospital in southern Cyprus later this week.

His Bolton dad Adrian has flown to Cyprus to be by his bedside.

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