Police on Sunday issued a €8,000 fine for a third-country fishing vessel which was illegally operating in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where Cyprus has sovereign rights over resources.

According to the police, the vessel carrying six people was spotted fishing in the Limassol sea area, 30 nautical miles southwest of Cape Zevgari, at 9am on Sunday morning .

A port and maritime police vessel and a police helicopter went to locate the fishing vessel, issued a €8,000 fine to the person in charge of the vessel and confiscated the tonnes of fish illegally caught by the vessel.

The vessel was later accompanied to the port of Limassol and set sail to its country of origin after the fine was paid.

The Cypriot EEZ is a maritime area within 200 nautical miles of the islands coast in which Cyprus has sovereign rights over living and non-living resources.

The area covers both living and non-living, within 370 kilometres of the Cypriot coast. It has in the past been a subject of tensions with Turkey due to its economic potential including gas reservoirs.