From rescues to honesty, 50 members of the public awarded

From helping to rescue a child from a burning building to handing over a lost wallet, 50 people who contributed to saving lives or helped police to maintain law and order in 2016 were awarded with certificates on Tuesday during a ceremony at Journalists’ House in Nicosia.

Among those honoured were Yiannos Triantafyllidis who helped rescue a child from a burning house, along with Andreas Kiris, Costas Andronikou and Epikelefsti Vassili for helping to get a child out of a well.

Also awarded was Andreas Andreou for life-saving actions that led to the location of an elderly missing person suffering from dementia.

Stelios Isaias, Fotis Hodjia and national guardsman Constantinos Ioannou gave crucial information to police about the smuggling of migrants into Republic.

Andreas Soteriou was awarded for tackling thieves who attempted to rob a kiosk, Petros Charalambous for his contribution to helping to stop illegal immigration and Anastasia Andreou for handing over to police a wallet with a large sum of money.

The certificates and plaques were given out by Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou and Police Chief Zacharia Chrysostomou.

In his address, Nicolaou said the people being honoured served as models for promoting honesty, volunteerism and justice. He stressed how important it was that citizens could cooperate in this way with police as it increased the feeling of security.

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.