Investigations are continuing on Wednesday into a large stash of fireworks that went off overnight in Limassol, alarming local residents who thought they were larger explosions.

The incident happened near the city’s casino and the new marina, with witnesses reporting dense smoke, fire, and repeated loud bangs, visible and audible in a widespread radius.

Police, in the process of examining CCTV footage, said the metal shack where the fireworks went off, had been used for their storage and manufacture.

Evidence collected from the scene has been sent for investigation.

Officers from the pyrotechnical unit said the warehouse contained firecrackers and other pyrotechnic materials, as well as flammable material used for their making.

The field which housed the shack belongs to a 77-year-old man while the person cultivating it claimed ignorance of the shack’s contents, saying he had been under the impression it was abandoned.

In the course of the blow-up the fireworks scattered over a 30m radius around the shack, police said. One tree was burned, as well as two immobilised vehicles.

The direction of causality, that is whether a fire in the field spread to the shack, or vice-versa, had not yet been determined, Limassol CID chief Lefteris Kyriakou told media.

The consternation happened shortly before 11pm on Tuesday, fire service spokeswoman Koulla Mesaritou earlier told the Cyprus Mail after the fireworks went off in the field containing carob trees and dry vegetation. Police received numerous calls from frightened residents in the Zakaki area.

The police press office said the field belonged to a different owner than the storage unit, and efforts were underway to question all involved.

Photos published from the scene, showed bits of corrugated iron and metal strewn about a lettuce field, remnants of the makeshift storage unit which was completely destroyed.

The fire service extinguished the flames preventing the fire from spreading to the marina and cargo containers.