Nicosia, Cyprus. Defence Minister Vassilis Palmas said the defence ministry is awaiting police findings it hopes will conclude the investigation into 13.6 kilograms of TNT that went missing during a national guard training exercise. He said police remain central to locating the missing explosives.
Minister points to ongoing police investigation
Speaking on Thursday after renewed scrutiny of the case, Palmas said police were continuing their investigations and expressed hope for developments in the coming period regarding the location of the explosives.
Explosives went missing during training in Larnaca district
The TNT disappeared on January 29 during an engineer training exercise at the Kalo Chorio firing range in the Larnaca district. The exercise involved a controlled detonation that failed to ignite.
Following standard safety procedures, personnel waited before returning to the site and then found that two explosive devices were no longer there.
Drone footage narrowed the timeframe
Drone footage later confirmed the explosives had been in place shortly before their disappearance, ruling out an unrecorded blast and narrowing the timeframe in which they could have been removed.
Authorities treated incident as possible theft
Authorities began treating the incident as a possible theft, sealed off the area, and launched parallel police and administrative investigations.
Palmas said the internal investigation within the national guard has been completed and its findings submitted. He added that national guard chief Emmanuel Theodorou, after evaluating the report, will impose penalties on officers who did not perform their duties during the training exercise.
What steps do you think authorities should prioritize to prevent similar incidents during future training exercises?
