A suspected Russian-made missile has exploded over the holiday island of Cyprus after skimming the capital Nicosia.

Residents saw a light in the sky and heard three massive explosions for miles around when the projectile hit a mountainside north of Nicosia in the early hours of Monday.

Hills were set ablaze as the emergency services rushed to the scene at about 1am local time following reports of a UFO.

It appears the missile was fired from a Syrian air-defence system guarding against an Israeli strike, and it's the first time Cyprus has been caught in the crosshairs of the war in Syria.

Turkish Cypriot foreign minister Kudret Ozersay said it appears a Russian-made missile missed its target and fell onto the Eastern Mediterranean island, which is just 70 miles from Syria's west coast.

Did you witness the incident? Are you in Cyprus? Email [email protected].

Israel had launched an air strike against Syria with its warplanes targeting military positions in Homs – just over 190 miles from Nicosia – and the outskirts of Damascus, according to Syrian state media.

The strikes are alleged to have killed at least four civilians, including a baby, and wounded 21.

Syrian air defences had fired at Israeli missiles which were launched from Lebanese airspace, according to the state media report.

Mr Ozersay said the explosion likely occurred before impact because there were no craters.

He wrote on Facebook: "The first assessment is that a Russian-made missile … which was part of the air defence system that took place last night in the face of an air strike against Syria, completed its range and fell into our country after it missed."

He added: "The pieces that fell to several different points prove that the missile exploded in the air before it crashed."

Russia, a Syrian government ally, has intervened in the civil war to prop up President Bashar al-Assad's forces, and it has a naval base in the coastal city of Tartus, west of Homs.

Cyprus is visited by about a million British nationals every year, and the island – a former British colony – is home to two UK military bases.

A Greek Cypriot military analyst, Andreas Pentaras, told a TV station that the debris suggested it was a Russian-made S-200 missile.

The missile hit in Northern Cyprus, a breakaway state not recognised by the international community.

Mr Pentaras, a retired army general, told Sigma TV in Cyprus: "An assessment from the pictures made public shows the base of its wings.

"It has Russian writing on it, so it suggests it is Russian made.

"Syria uses Russian-made missiles, so a not-so-safe assessment would be it was … an S-200 (missile)."

Jamming technology could have diverted the missile, he added.

Zenonas Tziarras, an analyst from the Geopolitical Cyprus think-tank, told Reuters: "Right now we can't be absolute but from the pictures and the inscriptions it appears to be an S-200."

That type of missile was designed to explode in mid-air if they don't hit a target, he said.

Earlier, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said the incident was linked to military operations in the Middle East.

He said further investigations were underway by the military.

He added: "It is evident it is not something stemming from our soil.

"It is one of the bad sides of the war in the region falling into our country.

No-one was injured when the errant missile crashed into the mountainside in the region of Tashkent, also known as Vouno, just over 10 miles north-east of Nicosia.

Authorities evacuated some homes.

The Eastern Mediterranean island is a popular destination for British holidaymakers, and it is home to RAF Akrotiri, a base which has been used in missile strikes against the Syrian government and ISIS.

Around a million British nationals visit Cyprus every year, according to the Foreign Office.

Cyprus, once part of the British Empire, remains divided by the Green Line, a demilitarised zone patrolled by UN peacekeepers separating the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus from the rest of the island.

Northern Cyprus is a breakaway state that is only recognised by Turkey.

What is an S-200 missile?

The S-200 is a Russian medium to high-altitude surface-to-air missile system.

It is a highly-proliferated weapon currently in service in at least a dozen countries, according to The Missile Threat, a project run by US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The S-200 was designed by the Soviet Union to counter the US B-58 supersonic bomber, and has been in service since 1967.

The nuclear-capable system is possessed by Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, North Korea, Poland, Russia, Syria, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, according to CSIS.

In October 2001, Ukraine's military accidentally shot down a Siberia Airlines plane with an errant S-200 missile during an air defence exercise.

The missile locked on to the plane, en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia, and flew 150 miles past its target.

The plane was destroyed by the missile strike and all 78 people on board were killed.

With a range of almost 190 miles, it has a payload of 217 kg or 25 KT, and is propelled by a single stage liquid motor, and four wraparound jettisonable solid propellant boosters.

The S-200's launch weight is about 7,000kg (15,400lbs).

It has undergone multiple upgrades since its launch more than 50 years ago to increase its range and accuracy.

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