Power cuts across Cyprus left 14 people trapped in lifts on Wednesday night, prompting multiple rescues by the fire brigade, which cautioned that responsibility for such incidents lies primarily with lift maintenance companies.

Speaking to Alpha, Fire brigade spokesman Andreas Kettis said crews responded to 14 calls during the rolling electricity outages, including five in Nicosia, four in Limassol, four in Larnaca and one in Paphos.

He explained that when electricity fails, lifts without automatic emergency evacuation systems can leave passengers stranded.

“When this power outage occurs in a specific city or area, all elevators that are in operation, we will probably have to proceed with evacuations as a fire department,” he said.

Kettis warned that simultaneous incidents could delay response times because of limited resources, adding that the law places the responsibility for rescuing trapped passengers on lift maintainers and installers.