Wave of vehicle arson under investigation

A car bomb went off outside a residence at a village in Paphos, while a vehicle parked outside an apartment building went up in flames in Limassol.

According to police, a car belonging to a 27-year-old female was parked outside her residence, at a village in Paphos district on Thursday night, when an explosion occurred around 10pm.

Investigators who rushed to the scene determined that the blast was caused by a makeshift explosive device in the back of the vehicle. No injuries were reported while the back of the car was damaged, according to police.

Hours later, in Limassol, a car belonging to a 40-year-old male went up in flames on Friday early morning. Local media said police and fire fighters were called out around 4:20am to an apartment building in Limassol, where a vehicle had been on fire.

After fire fighters managed to contain the flames, investigators determined the incident was an arson attack, which caused extensive damages to the front of the vehicle.

Police were carrying out investigations in both cases, while reports showed that law enforcement officials have been dealing with similar incidents in recent days.

A threatening message scribbled onto a cardboard box was found in Larnaca on Wednesday after members of the bomb squad were called out to examine a suspicious package.

And last month, two bombs went off in separate incidents in Larnaca and Limassol where the targets in both cases were cars belonging to sports figures.