Cyprus’s Anastasiades briefed on missing 11-year-old boys

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Tuesday he has given “strict instructions” to the country’s authorities to locate and rescue two 11-year-old boys who went missing earlier this morning outside their school in Larnaca.

“I was informed by the ministers of justice and education on the developments in the operation to find the two minors who were abducted today,” Anastasiades, who is in New York to attend the 73rd UN General Assembly, said on his official Twitter account.

“I have issued strict instructions to exhaust every possible way and means to find them,” he added.

Kathimerini Cyprus reported earlier that the two children, 11-year-olds Themistoklis Donglis and Filippos Stamatakis, went to school as usual in the morning but later their whereabouts were unknown.

According to Greece’s state news agency ANA-MPA, the boys’ parents are from Greece and they are friends.

Reports said an unknown male appears to have asked the boys to help him place some items inside his car, with five children running to the man’s aid initially.

He reportedly also told the children that he was a teacher.

When the school bell rang, it became clear that two children were missing.