Jewel shop thieves steal watches

THIEVES launched a £50,000 raid on a Nicosia jewellery shop early yesterday, police said. They broke into the Athos Diamond Centre on Makarios Avenue at around 4.30am and made off with around 40 watches worth a total of £47,000.

The culprits used a large piece of wood to shatter the entrance, as well as a metal pipe to break in through the side windows, causing damage estimated at £3,000.

Group 4 security personnel and police responded to the call, but the burglars had already fled the scene. Police said none of the shop’s expensive jewellery had been taken.

The shop is owned by Paphos resident Athos Ioannou and is insured.

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.