One restaurant in Nicosia and another in Limassol were set on fire in the past 24 hours and sustained extensive damage, the fire service said on Saturday.

Fire services spokesman Andreas Kettis said a restaurant in the Aglandja area of the capital was in flames at 4:58am.

It took six fire fighting vehicles to put out the flames, which damaged the premises and an electricity authority substation.

More staff were called in to deal with the fire and the cause of the flames will be investigated.

In Limassol, the fire broke out at a restaurant on Amathountos avenue at 1:41pm on Friday.

Two firefighting vehicles were deployed and it has since emerged the cause was a cooking oil fire.