A 53-year-old man has been arrested in Larnaca on suspicion of aiding and abetting the kidnapping of a 23-month-old child by his father, the police said on Thursday.

The man was arrested at 10.10pm on Wednesday evening, and was later taken to Limassol, where he remains in custody.

According to newspaper Phileleftheros, the man rented a vehicle and travelled in that vehicle with child’s father, a 29-year-old man, from near where the father had crossed into the British Dhekelia base from the north to the Limassol district village where his child and the child’s mother live.

Meanwhile, the mother’s lawyer, Ioannis Michalakis, told the same newspaper that the child’s father is a Turkish national, who had “constantly threatened her and seems to be involved in various situations”.

He said that the father and his accomplice “rented the vehicle [and] went to her house”, and that “he tried to drown her in the pool, while the other grabbed the baby, and they left together”.

The kidnapping took place on Wednesday morning at around 7.50am, with it believed that the child’s father travelled with the child to the north thereafter.

Later on Thursday, the Cyprus News Agency reported that a request has been filed to the Turkish Cypriot authorities via the bicommunal technical committee on crime for the man to be transferred to the custody of the Republic of Cyprus’ police.

The Cyprus Mail contacted the Turkish Cypriot police and is awaiting a response.

Meanwhile, the 53-year-old appeared in court, and was remanded in custody for eight days at the end of a behind-closed-doors hearing.

It also transpired that the child’s mother had last year filed a complaint to the police, accusing the child’s father of domestic violence.

The police are also investigating a video which appeared on social media appearing to show the child’s father in a car with the child.