Drone footage shows TNT in place on day it went missing

Drone footage taken at the shooting range in the village of Kalo Chorio last Thursday shows the 13.6 kilograms of TNT in place shortly before it was reported missing, according to reports on Wednesday.

News website Alpha reported that the footage shows the TNT in place at around 2pm on Thursday, and that as such, the police now believe that the material was taken between 2pm and 3pm.

It added that at present, the police believe that the material was either stolen and that the “explosives [are] in the hands of criminals”, or that it was collected by metal detectors.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry informed factory operators to “take additional safety measures” and to “be particularly careful” in case the explosives have appeared in their factories.

The quantity of TNT which has gone missing, it said, “poses great risk to human lives” if detonated.

Police spokesman Christodoulos Konsolos had said on Tuesday that “persons who have been involved” in firing exercises at Kalo Chorio and people “who are related to explosives” are being called in for questioning by the police.

Meanwhile, defence ministry spokesman Christos Pieris told the Cyprus News Agency that the ministry is conducting its own interrogations, and that the ministry is “awaiting” the outcome of those interrogations and investigations carried out by the police.

The TNT had been reported missing on Friday, and officials at the time said the material had been left at the site for a scheduled controlled detonation which was set to take place on Thursday, but which then failed to occur.

When personnel visited the site later in the day, they found that the TNT was not there.

Initial suggestions that the material may have been detonated without its use being recorded were swiftly dismissed, with the case being treated as a possible theft by both the police and the defence ministry.