A nursery teacher in Nicosia has been suspended after a video surfaced in local media, allegedly showing her threatening to throw a child out of a window. The disturbing footage has sparked widespread concern over child safety in care facilities across the island.

The social welfare services (SWS) responded to the incident, claiming that they had taken appropriate actions according to their responsibilities in light of the two recent reports.

The organisation emphasised the importance of ensuring the safety and protection of children, calling for concerns to be reported promptly, either anonymously or by name.

In a statement, the SWS claimed that audits were conducted regularly on social care programmes, including nurseries, to assess their operations. These audits would serve evaluation purposes and if discrepancies were found, warnings could be issued. In more severe cases, SWS said, authorities could go as far as to revoke a nursery’s operating license.

However, SWS said the responsibility for daily operations would lie with the nurserys’ owners and management, who would be legally required to provide proper child protection and care services. In cases of child abuse, SWS claimed they would ensure promt reporting to the police.

The father of the child in question filed a report at Omorfita police station on Sunday evening. In response, authorities launched a full investigation into the alleged incident.

Police spokeswoman Kyriaki Lambrianidou told the Cyprus Mail that the police were collaborating closely with the Social Welfare Services to access all relevant complaints related to the case.

On Monday, Maria Kyratzi, the director of social welfare services, confirmed that the teacher had been suspended. She added that the welfare office would have filed a complaint regardless of the father’s action, should there have been enough evidence of abuse.

The incident follows a similar case of suspected child abuse at a nursery in Limassol just a week ago, raising concerns about the safety of children in care facilities across Cyprus. Authorities continue to investigate both cases.