The police said on Tuesday they had charged four men after a video emerged of them appearing to kick and throw a turtle.

Police received a complaint at around 1.30pm on Monday and then attended the scene of the video, a beach near the Paphos district village of Chlorakas, shortly afterwards.

Investigations, they said, led police to identify the four men shown in the video as employees of the Chlorakas village council, aged 58, 47, 27 and 22.

Police located all four at their workplace, where they were arrested on Tuesday. Officers also took custody of a dead turtle found on site to establish its cause of death.

On Tuesday morning, Veterinary Services carried out an autopsy which determined that the turtle had been dead for approximately 48 hours.

Later on Tuesday the four men were charged in writing with public nuisance offences and were released pending a court summons at a later date.

Chlorakas village council expressed “regret” over the video, saying that “such practices are not consistent with the principles, values and modus operandi of the village council.

“As is standard practice followed by the Chlorakas village council in cases when dead animals are detected, workers went to the area with the aim of removing the turtle, which was believed dead,” it said.

It added that it will now await the completion of the police’s investigation.

Meanwhile, animal welfare commissioner Antonia Theodosiou described the incident as “unacceptable”, telling the Cyprus News Agency that even if the turtle had already been dead when it was found on the beach, “that is not the way to treat it”.

She said that “from time to time”, people tasked with removing dead turtles from beaches “cite the weight of the turtles or the lack of knowledge about their proper handling” as issues, but stressed that there are “relevant instructions and protocols from the fisheries department which must be strictly implemented”.

As such, she said there is an evident need to “train local authority staff” on how to handle turtles, adding that “such incidents undermine efforts to protect marine life and are incompatible with the respect we owe to protected species”.

She added that if a member of the public spots a live turtle, they must notify the fisheries department immediately.

Fisheries department director Marina Argyrou added her censure of the incident on Tuesday afternoon, describing it as “heinous and worthy of condemnation”.

She told CNA that it was “unprecedented”, and that an officer from the fisheries department had gone to the scene after the incident occurred and found that the turtle was dead.

“The way the turtle was handled by those involved was not justified, regardless of whether it was dead or alive at the time,” she said.