Cyprus’ Navy chief, Andreas Ioannides, has been identified as one of the 12 victims of a deadly blast which ripped through an arms depot in the country’s southern coast early on Monday, reports said.
About 62 people were also injured in the explosion that occurred at a munitions base where arms confiscated from an Iran-bound Syrian ship were stored. Cypriot authorities had seized the vessel and its cargo in 2009 as it violated an UN arms embargo imposed on Tehran.