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The last act of the tragedy in the Cypriot naval base near Limassol will take place today with the funerals of 8 of the 12 victims.

The funeral of the commander of the base Andreas Ioannidis will be in Agia Fila near Limassol at 17:30 and the Cypriot Archbishop Chrysostomos II will attend it.

It became clear hours after the blast that the commander had repeatedly made dramatic calls for better storage of the containers of explosives. After the unloading of these 98 containers in the naval base, Andreas Ioannidis was constantly sending letters to the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff of the National Guard. When the first fire broke out, he ordered all sailors to leave the base and remained there to the end together with the firefighters.
 
Particularly tragic is the fate of the 19-year-old sailors Miltiadis and Christos Christoforou. The two brothers, who were born and died together, were transferred to the naval base a few days ago from another division of the National Guard.

When the fire broke out, Miltiadis called their mother and informed her that they were going to extinguish it. The two brothers were at the entrance of the base when the alarm started. None of them knew that they were going to extinguish a fire, which was close to 200 tonnes of explosives. The twins were students in England, but returned to Cyprus to serve their military service. "Even death did not part them," write their friends on Facebook.

Five firefighters, the deputy commander and the administrative officer of the naval base will also be buried today. The funeral costs will be at the expense of the state.

Meanwhile, the revelations that the very President of Cyprus Dimitris Christofias has ordered the dangerous explosives to remain in the base caused a wave of general discontent in the island country. Last night, the police used chemical gas to disperse the Cypriots who had gathered in front of the presidential building to protest against the criminal inaction of the politicians, which led to the tragic events in the naval base.

Citizens who said they do not belong to any ideological party gathered outside the presidency and demanded the resignation of the government. Some tried to approach the building but the police repelled them with tear gas. Witnesses say the protesters threw stones, pieces of marble and other objects at the policemen, who responded with chemicals.

The first protest of the angry Cypriots in front of the presidency and other administrative buildings in other Cypriot cities took place still on Monday evening, but no clashes were reported.  The protesters demanded the resignation of politicians and trial for those responsible for the tragedy.

Thousands of Cypriots are descending their fury in the social media. "Christofias is fully responsible. His obsession against the West was the reason for the storage of the containers in the naval base to be returned to Iran as soon as possible. There is no need to say that the place was more than inappropriate. Unfortunately, we have an unable Communist for president who is close to the muls in Iran and the butchers in Damascus than to Western democracies. Christofias continues to hate the West and the European Union and considers partners all the former satellites of the Soviet Union. If it were not so tragic a situation, it would be comical. The economic consequences of the tragedy as a percentage exceed 10 percent of the gross domestic product of Cyprus. They are four times higher than the national deficit for this year, which is also an achievement of the most inefficient government in the history of the country. He could only contribute by resigning and letting the justice do its work." This is just one of the angry comments of the Cypriots written under the articles about the blast.

Due to the destruction of the largest power plant, which is near the naval base, Cypriots have been living with electricity restrictions for three days now. There are also water restrictions because desalination stations stopped operating due to the problems of electrification. And all that at temperatures above 40° C and at the height of the tourist season which is a very profitable sector of the Cypriot economy. Most political commentators believe that the problems of Dimitris Christofias are just starting.