Police on Tuesday confirmed they were investigating reports that a body was stolen from a cemetery near Anthoupolis in the Nicosia district.

A spokesman told the Cyprus Mail that earlier in the day a gravedigger called the police after seeing that the tomb of a woman who died four years ago was open.

Officers were sent to the scene to investigate.

Police could neither confirm nor deny any further details although reports said she was the mother of a prosecution witness in an ongoing court case.

The person in question is reportedly in the witness protection programme concerning a big drugs case and had been warned not to testify in the case.