The families of those who remain missing after a ferry sank off the coast of Kyrenia were briefly moved away from the new port of Kyrenia’s entrance on Tuesday afternoon, before quickly moving back to their initial location.

The north’s ’interior minister’ Dursun Oguz emerged from the crisis desk and told them that a “room” had been set up for them elsewhere on the port’s premises, allowing them to “get out of this heat”.

He also misspoke at one point, referring to the 20 missing people as “corpses”, prompting a furious reaction from the families in front of him, though he quickly corrected himself, and then described them as “brothers”.

The families then moved across the port complex to an area near the ferry passenger terminal, only to find that there, too, tents had been set up in a space in front of a building.

One of the crowd was heard shouting that “I was promised a room with air conditioning, and I am still outside in the heat as I was before!”.

Others, meanwhile, suggested that following heightened tensions and a scuffle between members of the families and the police upon the arrival of Turkish ambassador in Nicosia Ali Murat Basceri earlier in the day, the authorities wished to have them out of the way.

With tensions once again rising, many began walking back towards the port’s entrance, where they had initially set up camp, while some commandeered a bus which had been parked outside the passenger terminal and asked the driver to take them back to the entrance.

When they returned to the entrance, they found workers from the Turkish Cypriot Kyrenia municipality removing the tables, chairs and tents which had been set up for them.

The workers quickly returned the furniture to where it had been earlier in the day, while the nearby Lord’s Palace hotel then also sent a number of chairs to the port’s entrance.