FIERCE weather has battered several areas across the holiday island of Cyprus, with dams overflowing and landslides triggered.
Severe flooding in the north of the island has swamped roads turning them into rivers.
Cars were spotted nearly covered by the flooding caused by Storm Byron and people could be seen struggling as the water rose to waist height.
Residents living in Nicosia, were urged by mayor Mehmet Harmanci to exercise extreme caution as streams in the capital began to overflow.
The flooding horror has forced the closure of a central road connecting the general hospital and a school.
Harmanci said the water levels were dangerously high and could not be reduced at this time.
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The deluge caused a landslide on Ayios Epiktitos–Kythrea road, where locals had already been attempting to clean-up the devastated area.
Kyrenia, Agirta, Dikomo and Kioneli, are also among the areas hit by the flash floods.
Kyrenia mayor Murat Senkul said: “The problem is not the amount of rainfall in cities, the problem is the heavy rainwater coming from the mountains.
“Anyone who attributes the events in Kioneli to a lack of infrastructure is, to use an everyday phrase, talking nonsense.”
The mayor appeared angered by the claims the lack of infrastructure caused the overflow of the dam.
He insisted the freak incident was that of a natural disaster and demanded a “national action plan in the north.”
Senkul believes these procedures would be useful in the future as severe flooding is expected to increase.
Heavy rainfall also lashed the areas of Famagusta, Morphou and Lefka, although no serious incidents had been reported.
Just under a week ago Storm Byron hurtled through Greece, causing similar devastation near its capital Athens.
Horrific flooding trapped residents in their homes and public services were severely affected.
Storm Byron’s turbulent weather did hit the south of Cyprus – the effects were minimal with no significant amounts of water disturbing the reservoirs in the Paphos district.
Paphos has been struck by masses of rainfall reaching 113.1mm daily since the storm began on Friday December 5.
The brutal rainfall has claimed the title of second highest daily downpour in December for over a hundred years.
Authorities felt it was necessary to close the road linking Polis Chrysochous and Latchi on Sunday December 7 as Storm Byron raged on.
Amid the disruption, the north of Cyprus’ education minister Nazim Cavusoglu announced very few transportation problems have occurred and most schools remain open.
Cavusoglu said: “While some transportation difficulties have been experienced here and there following the rainfall that has affected our country since last night, the current situation is under control and the problems can be resolved quickly.”
This comes as catastrophic floods swept Indonesia last week, more than 100,000 homes were destroyed and the death toll has risen to over 900.
Hundreds of people are still missing after a rare and powerful cyclone formed over the Malaca Strait.
It brought vicious downpours and triggered landslides in parts of the southeast Asian country.
One survivor in Lintang Bawah Village told the BBC people survived by sitting on top of their houses.
The terrifying floods were one of many extreme weather events to hit Asia in the past few weeks.