DEFECTIVE grenades were yesterday blamed for Thursday’s accident during a National Guard exercise, which caused minor injuries to 18 men.
Defence Minister Socratis Hasikos yesterday called a news conference to clear the air about the incident, which he said had been blown out of proportion by the media.
The minister said preliminary investigation had ruled out the possibility of human error being behind the accident, which took place during an exercise at the Tseri range.
The wounded men, a major, 16 soldiers and a conscript officer, were rushed to Nicosia Hospital, where they were treated for superficial injuries.
“The National Guard is examining the possibility that the grenades which exploded prematurely during the exercise could have been defective,” he said.
Hasikos reassured that National Guardsmen were very experienced in fire rounds, stressing that all the necessary security measures were being taken to minimise the risk of accidents in exercises.
The minister complained that the media had made a big fuss over the incident.
“The number of accidents taking place in the National Guard is very insignificant considering that 100,000 people take part in military exercises every year,” Hasikos argued in an interview with CyBC before the news conference yesterday.
“The fact that we did not have any victims this time proves that all the necessary security measures had been taken,” he pointed out, adding that the National Guard would nevertheless further improve safety standards.
The House Defence Committee will ask the army to brief them on the accident so they can carry out a separate investigation, Committee Chairman and KISOS chairman Yiannakis Omirou said yesterday.
“We must examine all possibilities. Could the grenades have been used incorrectly, could they have expired or were they defective?” Omirou wondered.
He said concerns over the incident were justified.
Meanwhile, the Press Ethics Committee yesterday charged that certain electronic media had reported the accident in a way that had caused unnecessary panic.
The Committee issued an announcement advising media “to report more accurately and with more professionalism.”
The minister said yesterday that the National Guard was also investigating a separate accident in which a Greek soldier was seriously injured during exercises at the Kalo Chorio firing range on Thursday.
Hasikos dismissed reports suggesting the soldier had been wounded after an old mortar shell exploded at his feet. He said preliminary investigations had shown he was injured during the exercise.
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.
