A British tourist has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a UK soldier in Cyprus.

Fusilier David Lee Collins, 19, from Manchester, was stabbed to death after a fight broke out in a nightclub in the popular resort of Ayia Napa, last November.

Mohammed Abdulkadir Osman, 19, reportedly from London, admitted manslaughter at a court hearing in Larnaca, said Photini Larcou, registrar of the court, on Monday.

She added that two other British teenagers were acquitted of all charges. The three accused had also faced charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, possession of a knife and possession and use of a controlled substance.

Osman will remain in police custody until sentencing, which is due to take place on 15 May. Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison under Cypriot law.

Collins, from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was said to have been stationed at an army base in the Dhekelia area of the island.

He was off duty with three other soldiers when they became involved in a brawl with three British holidaymakers in the early hours of the morning. He was stabbed the day before he was due to fly out to Afghanistan.

Police investigators had said Osman initially told them he stabbed Collins in self-defence after four off-duty soldiers attacked him and his friends inside the nightclub. Osman had said he didn't mean to hurt the soldier and was sorry for what happened.

At a hearing at Famagusta district court in November, Osman admitted there had been a previous altercation between the off-duty soldiers and the trio before the fatal fight occurred in the Black & White nightclub.

A police search of Osman's hotel room at the time found marijuana, two brass knuckles and 11 switchblade knives that the suspect said he bought from a local shop and had planned to take back to give to friends.

Connie Pierce, a British military spokeswoman, speaking in November, said the attack took place in an area of the eastern Mediterranean island that British soldiers are told to avoid because of previous incidents.

After the rape and murder of Danish tour guide Louise Jensen by British servicemen in 1994, the centre of Ayia Napa was declared off-limits to soldiers by military top brass on the island – a clubbing resort with a reputation for sex, drugs and violence.

About 3,000 UK military personnel are stationed in Cyprus at bases retained after the former British colony gained independence in 1960.

In 2008, nine British soldiers went on trial accused of trashing a pub and beating up its owner during a mass bar brawl on the island. The servicemen, who were celebrating finishing tours of Iraq and Afghanistan and coming home to the UK, were all acquitted.