Detonator blows up in boy’s hands

THE DEFENCE Ministry was yesterday investigating the case of a 15-year-old boy who lost the tips of his fingers after a military detonator blew up in his hand.

Police detained his 19-year-old brother, who is serving in the National Guard and is suspected of having stolen the detonator during a military exercise.

The teenager was rushed to hospital on Sunday after the detonator exploded in his hands while he was trying to set fire to it.

According to hospital staff, the teenager’s fingers were reattached after a lengthy surgical procedure.

His condition was stable, the hospital said.

The 15-year-old had found the detonator in his brother’s drawer, reports said.

Defence Ministry spokesman, Lt Colonel Andreas Yorkas, told the Cyprus Mail the National Guard were co-operating with CID to investigate whether the detonator had been stolen from the exercise or from the soldier’s unit in Nicosia.

Yorkas explained the detonator was highly volatile and even dropping it could cause it to explode, let alone setting fire to it.

He added that after every exercise, special safety personnel combed the area and collected anything that might be picked up and cause injury.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.