Syrians sawed their way out of police cell

Two Syrian men, aged 29 and 31, were re-captured yesterday evening after they both escaped from Larnaca Police Headquarters’ holding cells early in the day.

They had spent three months hacking away at the lock on their cell using a using small saw that had been smuggled in to them.

The two were being held for being in Cyprus illegally and were going to be deported. Police have also arrested a 33-year-old man of the same nationality, who they suspect helped two men after their escape. According to police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos, the wife one of the Syrians managed to sneak in a small saw to them two to three months ago.

“From that moment they went ahead with cutting the lock and the iron bars without the incisions being visible,” said Katsounotos. This was done  at the base of the lock and iron bars, and had taken two to three months, he said.

Katsounotos said police believe the  two men had an organised escape plan as witness accounts pointed to the fact that two other prisoners were involved.

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.