A STONE-throwing student cracked the windscreen of a police patrol car called to a school playground in the early hours yesterday to put out a bonfire lit by teenagers.
The 1am incident at a gymnasium at Plati in the Aglandjia suburb of Nicosia came only hours after police arrested six teenage students for exploding a camping gas cylinder in the yard of another Nicosia gymnasium, in Lakatamia.
The incidents of what police called “youth delinquency” come as police crank up their Easter-time campaign to prevent illegal use of firecrackers. The blast at the Lakatamia school comes less than a fortnight after a pipe bomb went off in the lavatories of a Limassol school. The difference between the explosions in Limassol in Nicosia is that the former occurred during school hours. Two students were arrested in connection with the Limassol blast, one of them just 14 years old.
Police have charged seven teenage students in connection with the incidents at the Plati and Lakatamia secondary schools.
The incident at the Makarios III gymnasium at Plati occurred when police went to investigate a complaint about youths lighting a bonfire in the schoolyard. “Police went there and one kid threw a stone at the patrol car, cracking the windscreen,” Police spokesman Stelios Neophytou said. “Police arrested six under-18s and took them to Lykavitos police station where three of them named another as the perpetrator,” the police spokesman said.
The suspected stone-thrower was later charged and released.
Neophytou said the bonfire lit by the students had not caused any damage.
Neophytou said the blast at the Archangelos gymnasium in Lakatamia occurred at around 6.30 pm on Sunday. “Young persons caused a blast using a camping gas cylinder. Riot squad officers soon after took six youths under 18 to Lakatamia police station where they confessed and were charged in writing and released,” Neophytou said. He said the blast had caused no damage but had disturbed the whole neighbourhood.
He also described the two Nicosia incidents as “isolated”.
Bonfires, firecrackers and explosions are a traditional way for local youth to mark Easter, but police are keen to stamp out the habit.
A number of large seizures of illegal firecrackers have been made in recent weeks.
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