"My father saw this coming!"

Captain Andreas Ioannides, commander of the Cypriot maritime administration, is among the casualties of today’s deadly explosion at the “Evangelos Florakis” base.

Althogether, 12 people were killed and 62 were injured, 12 of them seriously, from the explosion that took place at 5:45am at the naval base in Mari-Zigi, in Cyprus, from a fire in two of the 98 containers of gunpowder, which were seized three years ago from a ship bound for Syria.

The son of the Captain, Nicholas, gave a dramatic testimony on television, stating that his father, as well as other navy officers, had been continually stressing the need for the destruction or removal of the ammunition stored within the naval base, but as he said, the warnings “fell on deaf ears”.

Mr. Ioannides also said that his father had told him that last week there was great concern on the base because a small explosion had taken place last Monday, creating a hole in the containers.

He even stated that on Sunday, there were reports that the containers had inflated and during the morning, small explosions started taking place, leading to the tragedy. According to information obtained by RIK, the base commander had sent letters to the Defense Department, noting the serious risks of the container with the powder.

At the same time the CAN, citing a military source, reported that in recent days, due to the high temperatures in the region, there were explosions in the packages containing gunpowder. According to the source, it was decided that the containers should be sprinkled with water. However, the source also added that this morning there was combustion, and then fire ensued. A fire truck was called to extinguish the fire, but an hour and a half later, the deadly explosion took place.

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou declined to answer whether there were written warnings about the hazards of ammunition. He simply said that there were several comments and that last week, the Defence Ministry had met to take care of the issue and decided to make initial estimates on the protection of the material. He also added that estimates are also being made on the source of the explosion, but there is no official stance on the matter until after the investigations are complete.

As Mr. Stefanou underlined, in addition to the victims there was huge property damage, and all ministries and government agencies have been mobilized to repair or take any needed action.

Worthy of note is the fact that the Cabinet of the Cypriot government declared public mourning until Wednesday, and the funerals of the victims will be at the state's expense.