Firefighters rescue driver trapped in car during severe weather conditions

The fire service is on alert on Sunday after responding to 20 calls for assistance due to severe weather conditions across the island in the past 24 hours.

Eight of the cases were in Limassol and included a rescue of a person trapped in a stalled car under a bridge. Another three concerned the removal of trees which had fell due to strong winds, while the remaining four concerned pumping water from the basements of houses.

In Larnaca, the fire brigade was called twice to remove fallen trees and once to clear up objects from the road.

Firefighters in Famagusta were called five times to remove fallen trees, while in Paphos two calls were made for the same reason as well as one call to drain rainwater and clear objects from the road.

A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms was on force at 6pm on Saturday until 6am on Sunday.

Fire Service spokesman Andreas Kettis told the Cyprus News Agency that the force remains on high alert on Sunday while off-duty personnel might also be contacted to assist efforts if necessary.

“Our equipment has been checked, it is on the vehicles for every case of pumping storm water,” he said.

Meanwhile, in addition to the 20 incidents, the fire service also responded to 23 fires and 14 other calls.

At around 8.30pm on Saturday, the force was called to pump water from an underground parking of a house in Limassol. The rainwater damaged a vehicle parked there as well as other objects, Kettis said.

Regarding the fires, Kettis said fire fighters put out a fire on the ground floor of a store in Nicosia at 3.30am on Sunday. He said the fire caused extensive damage to the shop and light damage to an office on the second floor of the same building. The causes are being investigated.