A 35-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an attack on five delivery rider in Paphos, the police said on Thursday.

The man was arrested shortly before midnight on Wednesday, and is expected to appear before the Paphos district court later on Thursday, while the police’s investigation into the matter is ongoing, with the force saying that it is searching for other people who were involved in the attack.

According to the police, the incident occurred at around 8.40pm on Tuesday, when a 26-year-old delivery rider travelled to the neighbourhood of Moutallos in central Paphos to deliver a food order.

The recipient of the order reportedly refused to pay for it, and, alongside three other people, attacked the delivery rider, throwing a rock at him.

At this point, the delivery rider informed some of his colleagues to the incident, with those colleagues then “rushing to the area”.

Shortly afterwards, “around ten” men, some of whom were reportedly “holding metal objects”, then arrived at the scene and attacked the delivery rider, damaging their motorcycles and “throwing them to the ground”.

Later, four of the group of ten reportedly got into a vehicle and headed across town, where they found another 22-year-old delivery rider and attacked him as well, stealing his mobile phone and an amount of cash, before fleeing the scene.

In total, five delivery riders reported being injured as a result of the incidents, with all five being taken to the Paphos general hospital. Four were discharged, while one remains in hospital as of Thursday.