Defence Minister, Army Chief quit after blast

Cyprus’s defence minister and army chief resigned after munitions dump blast that killed 12 people on Monday, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said.

The explosion happened at a military base where confiscated Iranian munitions were being held. It shut down the island’s largest power station, causing widespread power cuts.

“The explosion occured in material held since 2009 by the Republic from an Iranian vessel which was sailing to Syria…there are 12 dead and 62 injured,” Stefanou said.

He said that defence minister Costas Papacostas and army chief Petros Tsalikidis had submitted their resignations, which were accepted by President Demetris Christofias.

There was no immediate word on the identity of those killed in the blast. Stefanou said the victims were all Cypriots.

The Iranian armaments were in the cargo of the Monchegorksk, a ship Cyprus intercepted in 2009 sailing from Iran to Syria in violation of U.N. sanctions on Iran.

Military sources said they believed all 98 containers of the Iranian arms, kept exposed in scorching temperatures, exploded.

Stefanou declined to give details on the storage conditions of the material, but said there had been a meeting on the issue last week

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.