PAPHOS AIRPORT EVACUATED - NOW BACK TO NORMAL Cy Mail 2/3 by Tom Cleaver
Paphos airport was evacuated on Monday afternoon after a “suspicious object” was seen on radars, according to reports.
News website Reporter stated that instructions had been given for the terminal to be evacuated.
Later, it was reported that the nearby villages of Mandria, Timi, and Konia were all evacuated.
The Cyprus Mail made persistent and repeated attempts to contact both local and national authorities to confirm these reports, but received no response.
Update - Filenews
Instructions to the staff of Paphos airport to evacuate the premises of the buildings were given shortly after 12 noon by the authorities. According to the first information, the security authorities have received information about the risk of hitting the airport and the Andreas Papandreou air base by a drone, which is why the relevant instruction was given.The staff of the various services and departments of Paphos International Airport have already left the buildings and are gathered in the parking areas of the airport awaiting further instructions. At the same time, hundreds of passengers of flights that will depart from Paphos in the next few hours and had already gone to the airport are in the open air.
It is reported that the evacuation of the settlements is also being studied by the communities of Timi and Mandria, which are neighbouring to the airport.
The information states that the evacuation order is due to the finding of the existence of a flying object heading towards the airport and the military base of Paphos.
Update - Filenews
The official announcement of the interception of two drones heading to the British Bases of Akrotiri is slowly leading to a de-escalation of the situation and normalization of conditions in Paphos. Already, the officials of Paphos Airport have informed the staff to gradually return to their posts, while flights are also resuming according to the original schedule.
Officials stressed that the evacuation of the unit had precisely to do with the finding that enemy targets were heading towards Akrotiri and Paphos, which in terms of aviation are not far from each other.
The end of the alert for the two flying objects that were intercepted also leads to the normalization of the situation both at Paphos airport and in the neighbouring communities of Timi and Mandria, which began to be evacuated by their residents as a precaution.
