Riot police in the Cyprus resort town of Paphos fired warning shots as a group of around 200 migrants became unruly and launched attacks on officers with stones.
The incident took place on the evening of January 4th and saw riot police deployed to the resort town in order to disperse the aggressive migrants, who had already been involved in a large brawl the day prior that saw two people hospitalised.
The violence took place in the evening and involved residents of an apartment building in Chlorakas, which lies just north of Paphos, with locals claiming that stones and other missiles were also being thrown at local vehicles in the area, the Cyprus Mail reports.
According to the newspaper, when the police arrived on the scene, they were also attacked. Police were then forced to fire warning shots in order to disperse the mob, which is said to have mostly consisted of migrants, according to the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants.
Residents of the Chloraka district have previously told police that migrants and asylum seekers have formed a ghetto and some reports suggest police cannot enforce law and order in the area.
On Wednesday night, police arrested four men aged 18, 21, 25, and 40 in connection with the violence earlier in the week, while another 24-year-old man had been arrested on Tuesday night.
Chlorakas community leader Nicolas Liasides has called on the government to close the migrant ghetto in the area, saying it “is operating illegally with 500 to 600 people living there, among them asylum seekers.”
Cyprus has been undergoing a migrant crisis for the last several years, with a 2019 report noting that the island had received the most migrants per capita of any European Union country and that they made up around 3.5 per cent of the entire population of the country.
Last year in March, the Cypriot government called on the European Union to help deal with the migrant crisis, claiming the country had become overwhelmed by the arrivals of illegal immigrants.
Just months later in May, the government declared a state of emergency due to the arrival of migrants from Syria by sea.
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