A MOLOTOV cocktail exploded on the front wall of the Limassol home of two secondary school teachers in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police believe students were to blame.
If the firebomb attack was indeed down to students, then this would be the latest in a long line of incidents of youth delinquency on the island this year.
Justice Minister Nicos Koshis yesterday spoke of a worrying increase in juvenile crime, but Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides said it would be a mistake to blame all recent attacks on students alone.
The firebomb caused only minor structural damage to the home on Mantinias Street and no injuries. The husband and wife targeted in the 3.15am attack, both of them maths teachers, said they knew of no one who might want to harm them. But police suspect the attack might have been carried out by students angered by poor grades.
The incident was still being investigated by police yesterday.
The Molotov cocktail attack came just two days after Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides ordered an investigation into reports that secondary school students from Cyprus had gone on the rampage – wrecking hotel rooms and getting into fights – while on a school trip to Corfu.
Reports of teenage delinquency have been on the up in recent months, prompting teachers and parents to demand greater security at schools.
Earlier this month, teenagers scuffled with police in the Ayios Kasianos area of Nicosia after officers tried to stop them building an Easter bonfire in the area. In Limassol, last month, two students aged 17 and 14 were arrested after a pipe bomb exploded in the lavatories of a secondary school in the town. A few days before that, three 18-year-olds were arrested for attacking police during a brawl between students from Limassol and Paphos schools in the Pissouri area.
“We need to concern ourselves as a government and a society, and especially those of us who are teachers or parents, over how we can face this growing problem,” Justice Minister Koshis yesterday. He expressed sorrow at juvenile crime, saying arresting students was a “thankless task” for police. But Education Minister Ioannides suggested reports of student crime were exaggerated, saying it would be a mistake to blame all recent incidents on school children.
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.
