POLICE in Cyprus say they arrested 21 people today after a group of Greek Cypriots tried to attack protesting Syrians in a small village that has been a hotbed of tensions between locals and migrants.

Police said parallel protests by some 250 Syrians and an equal number of Greek Cypriots in the village of Chloraka in the island’s south-west on Monday evening degenerated into violence.

Police spokesman Christos Andreou told state broadcaster CyBC today that the clashes began when Greek Cypriots attempted to assault the migrants. 

Mr Andreou said nine Greek Cypriots and a dozen migrants were arrested and face a range of charges including weapons possession and causing violence.

Monday night’s clashes followed violence a day earlier, when two migrants and a Greek Cypriot man were detained after hundreds of Chloraka residents marched in protest against what they said was the “ghettoisation” of their village because of a large number of migrants settling there in recent years.

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides strongly condemned the incidents and said he has instructed both the police chief and the justice minister to hold talks with Chloraka municipal authorities and the Syrian migrants to “ensure public order — the people’s sense of security is non-negotiable.”