Cypriot airspace remains open on Wednesday after the sighting of “suspicious objects” in the skies above Lebanon which were believed to have been headed in the direction of the island, with Greek fighter jets having been deployed to deal with the threat.

On Wednesday morning, a transport ministry spokesperson told the Cyprus Mail that contrary to earlier media reports, Cyprus’ airspace remained open despite the threat.

Later, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis wrote in a post on social media that “the airspace of the Republic of Cyprus was not closed at any time”.

“As part of established procedures, two flights were requested to remain in holding patterns for a short period of time, so as to provide the necessary operational space” for the departure and manoeuvres of the Greek F-16 fighter jets which were scrambled after the sighting of the suspicious object.

In total, two of the four Greek jets which have been stationed in Paphos since Tuesday were used in the operation.

He added that “the captain of one of the two flights chose to return to Athens, while the second flight landed normally a short time later”, with Cypriot airspace now “continuing to operate normally”.

That flight, identified as Aegean Airlines flight 902, landed at Athens airport shortly before 11am. It is expected that it will depart for a second time at 11.45am.

The alert regarding the suspicious had been raised at around 9.30am, and was lifted half an hour later, with it later being reported that two drones which were headed for the island had been intercepted by the Greek jets.

It is believed that the drones were Iranian-made Shahed drones – the same model as that which had hit the runway at the United Kingdom’s Akrotiri air force base on Monday.

Shahed drones are one-way attack drones and have been previously used both in Iranian strikes on Israel and by the Russian military during its war with Ukraine.

The Greek jets returned to Paphos shortly before 11am, with media reports stating that the drones had been located around 120 nautical miles off the coast of Larnaca when they were intercepted.

After the drones were sighted, precautionary measures were taken at the United States’ embassy in Nicosia, which was put on “red alert”.

Cypriot police forces rushed to the embassy, while children at an adjacent nursery school were taken to an underground shelter.