A 49-year-old man from Paphos was arrested on Thursday after having launched fireworks which caused a fire in the Ha Potami area, near the village of Kouklia.

Paphos police’s assistant operations director Michalis Nikolaou said the man had secured a licence to launch the fireworks from a hotel in the area, and that there had been testimonies that it was his fireworks which caused the blaze.

The fire had broken out shortly after 8pm on Wednesday, but was eventually brought under control by 11.50pm.

Nikolaou said the fire burned between four and five hectares of grassland and wild vegetation.