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Unficyp soldiers banned from going to north after beach incident

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A temporary ban has been placed on all off-duty Unficyp military personnel going to the north, the UN confirmed on Monday, following a row on a beach in Famagusta last week.

According to the Daily Mail, ten “drunk and ill-disciplined” British soldiers clashed with locals at Glapsides beach in the north, after allegedly damaging two jet skis.

During the brawl an army vicar was reportedly punched and knocked to the ground before a car chase that saw the watersports owner chase the soldiers back to the checkpoint.

The vicar and the squaddies caused trouble with locals who accused them of smashing two hired jet skis and attempting to leave without paying thousands in damages.

Watersports Firm boss Cenk Akay had demanded around €5,000 to repair the damage to the jet skis but the Brits told him they did not have enough money with them to pay, causing him to phone the police.

The soldiers from the 21 Engineer Regiment said they were then surrounded by locals who threatened that they “would not leave this island alive”.

Akay added: “I warned the two soldiers to keep the jet skis 100 metres apart for their own safety but they ignored me and drove them like dodgems – they were crazy”.

Locals ended up chasing the soldiers with a car after they reportedly attempted to flee in their UN vehicles. Police in the north also chased the vehicles.

The UN vehicles were said to have got to a nearby UN base, while a minibus with the other soldiers crossed into the Ayios Nikolaos sovereign base area.

Unficyp immediately began investigating the situation.

According to the Daily Mail, UN investigators have warned the incident “could lead to deterioration of relations between the local population and members of the UN as well as damage to the good name of the UN”.

Since the incident, a temporary ban has been in place to all off-duty UN military personnel wanting to go to the north.

Unficyp spokesman Aleem Siddique confirmed this to the Cyprus Mail, saying: “While investigations are ongoing, there is a temporary ban.”

Last week, Turkish Cypriot ‘authorities’ called a meeting with the UN Secretary General’s special representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart and requested a serious and speedy joint investigation into the incident.

According to the Turkish Cypriot statement, the UN said it was aware of the seriousness of the incident and that the UN military police are ready to do the necessary work in cooperation with ‘authorities’ in the north.

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