Authorities on Wednesday were searching a mine in Mitsero for traces of a six-year-old girl whose mother was found dead there, in a well on Sunday, apparently murdered. Fire service personnel used cameras to search the water-filled well where the mother was found accidentally by a photographer taking pictures of the area.

The body had been bound and wrapped in a sheet before it was dumped in the 130-metre deep well. It is understood that the heavy rainfall this winter filled the well with water, revealing the body. Though police are very careful with the information they release, media reports suggested the body belongs to a 38-year-old woman from the Philippines who was reported missing from her Larnaca home, along with her six-year-old daughter.

Police arrested her 33-year-old partner who appeared in court on Wednesday and was remanded for eight days.