Officials and several people responded by offering help following a story on the RIK television station that a family of eight had been living in a park in Limassol for over a week.

The family, which comes from Poland and has been in Cyprus for seven years, was evicted from its rented house after both the father and mother lost their jobs and had no money to pay the rent.

The six children of the family are aged between 7 and 17.

One of the boys of the family told a reporter that they lived on handouts.

Soon after the story went on the air, Labour Minister Zeta Aimilianidou instructed the ministry’s welfare services to take  the family to a hotel.

Many individuals also offered help and said they wanted to provide for the family.

The father had been employeed as a construction worker and the mother as a house assistant.