Two elderly Turkish Cypriot siblings, Emine and Erhan Ozkin were removed by social services from their home in the northern part of the walled city of Nicosia after a fire broke out in their two bedroom house.
The elderly brother and sister had initially refused to abandon their home before social services stepped in.
Welfare services finally convince them after a few hours to leave their home and to be taken to a local hospital for the necessary medical checks.
The two siblings, who had been living together in the house since 1974, are very old and in bad health with Emine said to be suffering from mental illness.
The fire which had started in the early hours of Wednesday, in the kitchen due to a gas leak, brought to the surface the squalor in which they were living in. The house, which was literary falling apart, was full of rubbish.
The council had sent in a cleaning grew which filled three trucks with rubbish collected from their home. The house was also home to tens of rats which surfaced due to the fire.
The kitchen of the house was totally destroyed in the fire.