Police are attempting to locate three poachers who pointed their weapons at a game warden on Sunday, causing him to lose his footing and tumble down 100 metres along the Fukasa mine at Katydata in the Nicosia district.

The area is off limits to hunters. A huge rescue operation was launched around midday with members of the emergency rescue unit Emak, the police air wing and the ambulance service.

The game warden was not seriously injured but could have been had he not been able to come to a halt along the rock face.

According to police the incident happened before noon when, while on patrol with a colleague, he spotted the three men with hunting dogs in the area, which is close to the buffer zone, and approached them for a check.

However, according to reports, the three men fled, chased by the game wardens.  When they caught up with the poachers and from a distance of around 20 metres, the game wardens were threatened with weapons.

One of the two officers took a misstep and fell over the edge of the rock face, tumbling around 100 metres before being able to stop. His colleague notified the authorities. The air rescue was launched after a ground operation with ropes failed due to the instability of the ground.

The gamekeeper was eventually winched by helicopter and taken to the Nicosia general hospital where he was examined but was not the worse for wear.

Police and the game service are searching for the poachers.