The now former civil defence chief Maria Papa left her post and took up a position at the audit office for purely administrative reasons, the Cyprus News Agency quoted sources as having said on Friday.

The sources said that her secondment was “not a last-minute development”, but instead, “something which had been underway for days”, and that it was “related to the administrative needs of the civil defence and of the audit office”.

Those reports came after newspaper Politis had reported that Papa had been seconded after the civil defence faced “intense criticism over the state” of evacuation shelters around the island.

It said that Papa had “been giving assurances, even in writing” to both interior ministry permanent secretary Elikkos Elia and to the minister himself, Constantinos Ioannou, that “everything was going well with the shelters”, that regular inspections of them was being undertaken, and that maintenance was being carried out.

That report came after Ioannou had said on Wednesday that almost 200 sites which were listed by the civil defence as evacuation shelters are unsuitable for use or no longer exist, following inspections carried out in the aftermath of a drone strike on the British Akrotiri air force base.

Additionally, Ioannou said, it was found that a further 288 shelters are now not accessible to the public, and that they are now exclusively for the use of the owners or tenants of the buildings in which they are located.