Cyprus yesterday evacuated 104 people from Lebanon via Syria early after Israel launched an air, land and sea blockade on Beirut. A government-chartered jet landed at Larnaca airport early yesterday morning. The island, the closest EU member to the Middle East, has also offered to evacuate Europeans on another flight should that be needed today. The aircraft arrived more than six hours later than scheduled because security concerns forced a change in the route used in the evacuation from Beirut to Damascus by road on Thursday night, officials said. "The buses took a northern route instead of going southwards for security reasons," Foreign Ministry Director General Sotos Zakhaeos told Reuters.