People living in Nicosia should “make summer plans as far as possible” from the capital, Nicosia Turkish Municipality (LTB) technical advisor Erdogan Bekiroglu said on Friday.

He highlighted Nicosia’s lack of natural shade from trees in a post on Facebook and added that “very difficult days await Nicosia this summer”.

However, he hinted at projects on the part of LTB to ameliorate the situation, saying, “of course, living in Nicosia will be more comfortable after our work is done.”

Nicosia’s lack of tree coverage is a problem which impacts both sides of the capital, especially during the hot summer months.

Just four per cent of Nicosia is covered by trees, making it the European capital with the lowest amount of tree coverage in Europe, according to the European Environment Agency.