Paphos police are looking into whether a recent clash involving up to 150 people in the village of Chlorakas is connected to an earlier incident for which police have already made six arrests.
On Tuesday night, Paphos police were alerted to violent clashes of more than 100 people at a residential complex in Chlorakas.
According to police sources, officers arriving at the scene at 6.50 pm were attacked by people with stones and sticks.
As reported by Phileleftheros, a group of assailants were targeting the house of a Syrian man.
Police fired warning shots into the air in an effort to disperse them. An anti-riot squad unit led by Paphos Police Director Nikos Tsapis was dispatched.
However, by the time the squad had arrived, the rioters had disbanded.
In subsequent checks carried out in the area on people who were moving on foot or in vehicles, officers found a 24-year-old man possessing a knife.
The man was arrested for illegal possession of a deadly weapon.
Paphos police also located a car that was overturned and damaged by rioters.
After further examination, the vehicle owner said a group holding sticks attacked him, forcing him to abandon the car.
Police sources told the Financial Mirror they are looking into whether Tuesday’s incident is connected to a similar incident in Kato Paphos on Monday, for which police have already arrested six people.
Reports say that two of the people arrested for Monday’s clashes were also involved in Tuesday’s incident at Chlorakas.
Media reports claim the violence is connected to differences between gangs of foreign nationals involved in drug trafficking.
Police have stepped up their patrols in the village, while Chlorakas locals are angry over the clashes.
The local community leader Nikolas Liasides in statements to the Cyprus News Agency called on President Nicos Anastasiades to intervene to close the residential complex where the trouble started.
Liasides argued that the complex “operates illegally with 500-600 people living there, some of whom are political asylum seekers”.
“Unfortunately, we lived through moments of horror.”
