A fire that broke out on Thursday afternoon in a building next to at an paint factory in the area of ​​Pera Chorio Nisou in the Nicosia district was due to a malicious act, the fire service said on Friday.

According to an announcement from the fire department they received information around 4.15pm that there was a fire at the factory. It was brought under control half an hour later.

It clarified that the fire was outside the factory in a covered storage area and did not spread inside the main building.

The contents of the storage area and the roof were damaged. The factory was closed at the time and there were no workers on the premises.

Investigations showed that the fire was an arson attack.

Between 6am on Thursday and 6am on Friday the fire service responded to 29 calls for help, 15 of which were fires and six were hoax calls.