APART from a few isolated cases of panic, Cypriots living near a suspected terrorist poison lab in north London were taking the shock story in their stride yesterday.
Six men of North African origin were arrested by British police on Saturday in connection with the discovery of a makeshift laboratory over a London pharmacy in the Wood Green area of the capital, where thousands of Cypriots live.
Small traces of the poison Ricin and ingredients and equipment for its manufacture, were discovered in the apartment, leading authorities to suspect the suspects were connected to a terrorist organisation.
Only minute amounts of the poison, which is extracted from the castor plant, are needed to kill through ingestion, inhalation or simply by physical contact. There is no known antidote for the poison, which, when inhaled, causes respiratory failure. When ingested or injected, it can cause severe gastrointestinal symptoms leading to massive fluid loss and organ failure. Ricin can cause death within days. Anyone with an undergraduate knowledge of chemistry has the skills to extract it and just one milligram can kill an adult.
Many residents of Wood Green reacted with alarm that a suspected terrorist cell had been in their midst, British newspapers reported yesterday.
Androulla Kyprianou, whose front door opened on to the police barrier around the flat’s entrance, told one English paper the incident had changed her view of the area forever. Kyprianou, a 62-year-old grandmother who has lived in the areas for 38 years, said: “I am worried for my grandchildren and I want to sell the house and move away from here. I feel we have been put in a great deal of danger. I won’t let my grandchildren visit for a while. It’s a place where they should feel safe but now I feel awful.”
A journalist at London Greek Radio (LGR) told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that they were one or two cases of Cypriots being worried about the incident, but for the most part people were not unduly concerned.
“Most of the reaction has not been out of the ordinary,” the journalist said. “People continue to follow the news on the incident. The impression that has been created from this incident is far greater than the actual facts of the case. It could just be part of the creation of an atmosphere of panic to justify the war on terrorism.”
He said the pharmacy over which the alleged laboratory was located was well known in the community and that it was possible the building itself may be owned and rented out by a Cypriot. ‘We are looking into this possibility ourselves,” he said.
A Cypriot student living a stone’s throw from the pharmacy said neither he nor his friends were concerned. “I just passed outside there,” the student said. “It’s all very low key. There are a couple of cops outside and the pharmacy is closed with the shutters down. Everyone is going about their business and it doesn’t seem to be making any real difference.”
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.
