A string of fires that have ravaged parched forests and farmland across the heatwave-afflicted Republic of Cyprus prompted a rare offer of assistance yesterday across the island’s communal divide.

The Turkish-occupied north of the island offered to put its firefighting equipment at the disposal of Nicosia, top Turkish-Cypriot forestry official Irsen Kucuk said. Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides said the fires were already under control but nonetheless expressed gratitude for the offer, Kucuk told the Turkish-Cypriot TAK news agency.

Hundreds of Cypriot firefighters and British troops in the region of Limassol yesterday battled to contain three blazes threatening nearby villages. The fires, which started on Thursday morning, had already ravaged at least 10 square kilometers (9 square miles) of pine forests, a factory and three houses, when they were extinguished yesterday morning, but strong winds rekindled the embers hours later.

Seven youths, whom witnesses claimed to have seen starting the fires, were remanded in police custody yesterday. (Combined reports)