Greek Cypriots storm checkpoint as border restrictions lifted for first time in 30 years

HUNDREDS of Greek Cypriots, frustrated by queues of people waiting to visit the island’s Turkish Cypriot north for the first time in 30 years, broke through chains of UN peacekeepers at a border point yesterday.

In a sign of the pent-up tensions on the divided Mediterranean island, the Greek Cypriots stormed through several lines of troops at Nicosia’s Ledra palace crossing in a dash for the northern Turkish checkpoint, where they were finally held back.

Witnesses said scuffles and fistfights broke out at the main crossing as impatient crowds queued at the start of a four-day Orthodox Easter break to see former homes and other places in the north that had been off-limits for three decades.