CYPRUS: Three people die during floods in Kyrenia

Three young people lost their lives in the north of the island and one more is missing, as torrential rain wreaked havoc, especially in the Kyrenia area.

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Turkish Cypriot authorities have recovered the bodies of three people so far in a ditch off the Nicosia-Kyrenia road near Kyklos in Kyrenia.

They are thought to have been travelling in a car that was swept away by a torrent and fell 200 metres. The searches for a fourth passenger was halted on Thursday afternoon due to heavy rain.

According to reports, efforts were made to recover the car from the ravine it was swept into but later called off due to bad weather.

Turkish Cypriot media reports say that the dead are Gaye Soyutok, 18, Tolga Bekci, 21, and Ahmet Kilic, 23.

The rain caused floods in Kyrenia and other areas with serious damage also reported in Karavas and Lapithos.

Because of the bad weather, a number of schools in the north remained closed on Thursday.

Meanwhile, criticism in the north of the uncontrolled construction, often in riverbeds, has been revived as Turkish Cypriots have lashed out at authorities through social media.

Angry Turkish Cypriots point to corruption in the north as one of the main causes of the weather chaos.