People trapped in cars, Larnaca airport floods as road network hit by rain (updated, video)

The fire services have responded to around 39 calls in Larnaca due to heavy rainfall on Sunday morning.

In a Tweet, fire services spokesman Andreas Kettis said the calls for help referred to flooded basements and people trapped in cars on flooded roads as well as opening blocked drains.

Members of the fire service who were off on Sunday were called in to help as were the police and civil defence.

Larnaca airport has also flooded.

“The big change in the weather conditions and the heavy rains have resulted in the overflow of the side entrance of the arrivals at Larnaca airport,” operator Hermes said.

It said that measures were immediately taken to close off the area to not affect the operation of the airport.

The torrential rains and hail that fell in a short period of time in the morning in and around Larnaca created problems in several communities, flooding several roads and blocking drains.

The heavy rains caused damages to homes in refugee estates which are located at a lower height thatn the road, mayor of Dromolatisa-Meneou Kypros Andronikou told the Cyprus News Agency.

He said the road linking Meneou to neighbouring Kiti was flooded and called on the department of public works to take measures to prevent this happening in the future.

He said the municipality swiftly sent teams out to clear drains that were blocked as rainwater swept detritus from fields and other plots into the road.

He said all the grills had been cleared in the autumn, which prevented a bigger problem. “I don’t remember it ever raining as much in such a short time,” Andronikou said.

Larnaca mayor Andreas Vyras said 36cm of rain fell in a very short time causing problems to the road network but no damages.

“The pumping stations operated well,” he said, particularly in areas that had previously flooded.

Much water collected in the Ayios Lazaros area, for which European funding has been secured to construct works that will prevent flooding. “We expect that in a year or two the work will be completed, solving the problems that that particular area faces,” he said.

The Pervolia-Mazotos road was also closed due to large amounts of water on it because of the rain.