The alert at the Kalo Chorio firing range has ended after bomb disposal experts defused the unexploded shell found following a forest fire in Agia Anna. A second shell found at the scene was inspected by bomb disposal officers and found to contain no explosive material, National Guard sources said, adding it was in fact a piece of metal.
Defence Ministry spokesman Sofianos Filippidis told philenews the first device was an 81mm illuminating mortar shell, found yesterday at the Kalo Chorio firing range. It was defused, in the presence of the National Guard’s deputy chief, by a bomb disposal team that cordoned off and secured the area. The scene had been sealed off and guarded by police and National Guard personnel, while Forestry Department crews remained on site.
The fire itself was first spotted in a forest area by a Forestry Department fire lookout at around 3pm on Wednesday. Firefighting aircraft and vehicles from the Forestry Department and Fire Service helped contain the blaze to a riverbed area, deploying five aircraft, 33 Forestry Department personnel with six vehicles, two water tankers and a bulldozer, and nine Fire Service personnel with three vehicles, reinforced by a water tanker and bulldozer from the Larnaca District Administration and local residents using a tractor and excavator. The fire was brought under control by 5:30pm, after burning six hectares of reeds, stubble and wild vegetation.
The discovery of the shell has again raised safety concerns over the presence of the firing range in the area. Communities there called for the range’s closure after a major fire last July, caused by an ammunition explosion.
