Athens/Nicosia  - A Syrian man was killed and another seriously injured when they tried to escape police on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus during an immigrant smuggling crackdown Tuesday.

Reports said the two men were hit by a car as they tried to cross a highway near the southern coastal city of Larnaca, just south of the ceasefire line dividing Cyprus' Turkish Cypriots in the north and the Greek Cypriots in the south.

The men were apparently trying to escape police who were in the process of rounding up dozens of illegal immigrants.

One of the men died in hospital and the other is in serious condition.

Police said the two men were among an estimated 50 illegal immigrants who had entered the southern part of Cyprus through the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north. Officials have arrested 38 members of the group.

The island is near Syria and Lebanon and many attempt to enter via the northern third of the island in the hope of accessing areas controlled by the Greek Cypriot government which represents Cyprus in the European Union. (dpa)