Nicosia, Cyprus. Cyprus defence minister Vasilis Palmas said an internal investigation into the disappearance of explosives during a national guard exercise found omissions and dereliction of duty by officers involved. A separate police investigation remains under way.
Internal inquiry completed
Speaking on CyBC on Saturday, Palmas said the administrative inquiry had been completed with the submission of its report. He said the report identifies responsibilities and serious omissions by officers who took part in the exercise.
Palmas said disciplinary measures would be determined internally under national guard regulations.
Police investigation ongoing
Palmas said public concern centres on the criminal aspect of the case and the recovery of the explosives. He said what matters most to society is the criminal investigation and finding the explosives that were lost due to unprofessional conduct.
He described the internal investigation as a substantive step in recording the facts and clarifying the circumstances, but cautioned against expectations of swift conclusions from the criminal probe.
Timeline of the disappearance
The 13.6 kilograms of TNT went missing during an engineer training exercise involving a controlled detonation at the Kalo Chorio firing range on January 29. When the blast failed, personnel followed safety procedures and waited before returning to the site, where two explosive devices containing a total of 13.6kg of TNT were found to be missing.
Drone footage later confirmed the material had been in place shortly before its disappearance, ruling out an unrecorded detonation and leading authorities to treat the incident as a possible theft. The explosives have not yet been recovered.
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