Cyprus police and the British bases have completed a week-long training course on addressing a hostage crisis, aimed at making Cyprus safer.
The Cyprus police hostage negotiators’ refresher training took place last week to test multiple assets within the special forces.
The British bases said this was the sixth year in a row their police negotiator team were involved in the training, alongside the Cyprus police emergency response unit.
The training culminated with a large-scale exercise on October 9.
Bases police chief constable Steven Jupp said his officers’ involvement was key to strengthening the working relationship between the two forces.
“I want to express my gratitude to the Cyprus police leadership team for their continued support, not just in relation to this hostage crisis training, but to the continued and important way we work so closely together to ensure we collectively keep Cyprus safe,” he said.
Speaking shortly after the exercise, chief inspector Maria Atalioti, who headed up the negotiator team, said that for the last six years the bases had established a very close cooperation with Cyprus police negotiators’ team.
“This joint training is a great example of our very good cooperation and partnership in the hostage negotiation field in making Cyprus safer for all our communities and visitors,” she said.
“We currently have a team of five qualified hostage negotiators that have been trained in the UK, and the Cyprus police team, which was formed 15 years ago, has 37 negotiators.”
