The three people who were arrested on suspicion of having kidnapped and assaulted a 24-year-old Turkish Cypriot man in Limassol were released without charge pending the completion of investigations into the matter, the police said on Wednesday.

All three were arrested and then questioned, with the police saying that their investigation into the matter is ongoing.

According to the police, the victim had said that at around 7pm on Friday, while he was in a park, three people approached him, and that following an argument, they had asked that he get into their car.

He said he was then taken to an unknown rural location, where he was stabbed in the right leg.

The three perpetrators then fled, while the victim was found by a passerby, who took him to the Limassol general hospital.

On Monday, the Limassol police’s deputy operations chief Lefteris Kyriacou said that the perpetrators kidnapped the victim, and then “hit him and injured him with a knife”, as “they believed him to be a suspect regarding recent cases of dog thefts”.

He later added that the police are investigating “a case of kidnap and causing grievous bodily harm”.

A 30-year-old man was arrested early on Tuesday in connection with the kidnapping of a 24-year-old man on Friday in Limassol and causing grievous bodily harm. The police are searching for two other suspects.

On Monday, the police confirmed that a 24-year-old Turkish Cypriot man was kidnapped and attacked with a knife in Limassol.

The police said on Tuesday that all three suspects are Greek Cypriots.

According to the police, the incident was reported at around 10am on Monday, following a phone call to the police by a friend of the victim.

The man said that at around 7pm on Friday, while in a park in Limassol with a friend, three people approached him. Following an argument, the three asked him to get into their car.

The suspects allegedly took the 24-year-old to an unknown rural location, where they assaulted him.

According to the complaint, the man was stabbed in the right leg.

The perpetrators fled the scene and the 24-year-old was found by a passerby who took him to Limassol general hospital, where doctors found he had multiple injuries.

He was admitted to hospital and discharged on Sunday.

On his way to hospital, the man claimed he had been injured in a car accident.

He later told the police the perpetrators believed he was responsible for dog thefts.

The three suspects had reported the dog thefts to the police days before the incident, but had not named the victim as a suspect.

Police investigations are ongoing.

A 24-year-old Turkish Cypriot man was kidnapped and attacked with a knife in Limassol, the city’s police’s deputy operations chief Lefteris Kyriacou confirmed on Monday, following widespread reports of an attack.

“We were informed that a 24-year-old … was kidnapped in the evening [of Friday] in the Ayios Antonios area by three other people, who took him violently to an agricultural area, where they hit him and injured him with a knife and they believed him to be a suspect regarding recent cases of dog thefts,” he said.

He later added that the police are investigating “a case of kidnap and causing grievous bodily harm”, and that “developments are expected in the coming period”.

Earlier in the day, newspaper Phileleftheros reported that the man lives in Limassol, and that he had been attacked by “a group of Greek Cypriots”.

It also reported that the man underwent surgery on Friday night.