Three people were arrested on Thursday afternoon after it emerged that they owned around 300,000 illegal firecrackers, stored in a cargo container located in a Limassol warehouse.

The operation, which was prompted by a tip-off, was initially anticipated to be a drug bust, hence the involvement of the Ykan drug squad.

However, when police officers arrived at the scene in the area of Ayios Silas, they discovered that, instead of drugs, around 300,000 firecrackers were stored in the warehouse.

Police managed to identify the owners of the illegal items, two people aged 24 and one aged 26, all three from Nicosia. They were all arrested and taken to the nearest police station for questioning.