A MEETING was held yesterday between parents associations, police officials and the Minister of Education to discuss the recent spate of explosions at high-school premises in Limassol and Nicosia.
On Tuesday a bomb went off in the lavatories of the Polemidhia secondary school in Limassol. Police later arrested two students, aged 17 and 14. The 17-year old was on Thursday charged and is set to appear before court. His younger companion was questioned and later released.
This was followed by another near-incident at a Paphos primary school, where students found an explosive device that had been primed but malfunctioned.
On Thursday a 40-year-old man from Limassol was remanded in custody for two days on suspicion of supplying his 14-year old son with firecrackers, which the boy later sold to classmates.
Use of firecrackers becomes widespread as the Easter season draws closer. Police have also had to deal with a series of hoax bomb threats against schools over the past week. On Wednesday, a 16-year old student was caught in the act of making a bomb threat call from a phone booth. His success in disrupting classes triggered a string of copycat hoaxes in Limassol on Thursday, when police received at least three bomb threat calls.
During yesterday’s meeting at the Ministry of Education, representatives of parents associations asked for the implementation of greater security measures on school premises.
Persons found to have caused material damage through the use of explosive materials are liable, on conviction, to up to 14 years imprisonment, although such harsh sentences are rarely passed.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
