(24 Jul 2025)
RESTRCTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Limassol, Cyprus – 24 July 2025
1. Various of firefighter helicopters dropping water on the wildfire in Limassol district
2. Various of firefighters operating in the area
3. Vehicles driving through smoke
4. Wide of smoldering fields
5. Antonis Christou, 67, resident of Kantou village, walking on burned fields in the village of Souni
6. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Antonis Christou, resident:
"(I was driving) just outside Kantou village, all the roads were blocked. Police wouldn’t let me get to my home and I fought to get to my home. I entered my home and I see the entire hillside across in flames, the entire valley was burning. I called the fire service."
7. Various of Agios Ioannis Orthodox Church, burned by the wildfire
8. Various of houses burned by the wildfire
9. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Antonis Christou, resident:
"The world is destroyed, the whole universe is destroyed. I don’t know, its every year, every year. And I came here today, I brought water for the people."
10. Various of houses burned by the wildfire
11 . SOUNDBITE (Greek) Antonis Christou, resident:
"1974. It reminded me of 1974 (the Turkish invasion) because in 1974 I left my home and I was 16-and-a-half years old, that’s how I felt. And I cried, I cried, honestly I cried because the world was on fire. I later learned that a person was burned in his car, another is missing."
12. Various of houses burned by the wildfire
13. Burned car ++not the car in which bodies were found++
14. Interior of a house burned by the wildfire
15. Various of residents checking houses burned by the wildfire
STORYLINE:
Police in Cyprus found two bodies inside a burned-out car Thursday after a massive wildfire scorched 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) of forested hillsides, destroyed numerous homes and forced the evacuation of a dozen villages on the southern side of the island nation’s Troodos mountain range.
Police initially reported late Wednesday that Civil Defense personnel found the charred body of a single individual inside the vehicle on a main road connecting fire-hit hillside villages. But a second body was discovered early Thursday morning and police said identification efforts are ongoing.
Photos posted on social media purported to show the victims’ gutted vehicle on the shoulder of the main Monagri-Alassa road.
Fire Service Spokesman Andreas Kettis told state-run Cyprus News Agency there are currently no active fronts but fire crews were still battling numerous flare-ups, and winds are expected to pick up later in the day.
Up to 14 aircraft are resuming water drops over hard-to-reach areas.
Cyprus’ Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis told the state broadcaster that more than 100 people who were evacuated from fire-hit communities are being hosted in temporary shelters.
The fire forced the evacuation of 14 villages along a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) stretch of mountainous terrain.
Media reports showed gutted homes smoldering as flames swept through the outskirts of some villages.
In the village of Lofou, at least 20 homes were destroyed as fires threated a group of stranded evacuees whose police buses had to turn back as the fire front shifted to block their exit.
Images broadcast on media late Wednesday showed flames consuming trees, brush and other vegetation along a huge front burning bright orange against the backdrop of a nighttime sky.
Police continued to block road access to the fire-afflicted communities as area residents vented against what they called a disorganized response to the huge fire.
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