"We live here, we've got used to all the exercises, we've got used to all the planes, but what we never imagined is this, the retired lawyer said on Tuesday, standing in front of the main gate to the facility. Who would have thought of a drone flying through our skies, exploding on the other side of that fence and forcing all of us to leave?"
"In a moment, he said, the dangers of living next to a British base, when conflict was raging not so very far away, had suddenly become very real. In the early hours of Monday, sirens had begun to sound after the unmanned one-way attack drone crashed into RAF Akrotiri's runway."
"There are over 1,000 of us in our community, but today not more than 30 have remained, said Konstantinos. They've all gone, either to hotels, the nearby monastery or relatives in Limassol. People don't feel safe when there's so much uncertainty."
Giorgos Konstantinos and residents of Akrotiri village in Cyprus have lived alongside RAF Akrotiri for generations, accustomed to military exercises and aircraft noise. However, a Shahed-type drone launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah crashed into the base's runway early Monday, triggering sirens and prompting a government-ordered evacuation. The village, home to over 1,000 people, became nearly deserted as residents fled to hotels, monasteries, and nearby cities. Konstantinos expressed shock that despite advanced air defence systems at the base, the drone was not detected earlier. This incident transformed abstract military proximity into immediate, tangible danger for residents who had previously accepted the base's presence as routine.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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