Five injured by firecrackers

FOUR innocent bystanders, including two children, and one young man handling a firecracker were injured by them over the Easter period, the police announced on Tuesday.
A man from Larnaca suffered severe injuries to his palm, fingers and eyes from a firecracker.
The police also said their campaign before the holiday to block the use of firecrackers, mostly brought over from the north, had resulted in fewer incidents this year.
“Generally, it went well. I’d like to report that there were no injuries at all, but unfortunately that was not the case, there was one serious incident to a 20 year old man and four other minor casualties,” police spokesman Andreas Angelides said of the campaign.
The most serious incident took place on Good Friday when a 20-year-old from Larnaca was holding a metal tube which exploded, resulting in injury to the palm of one hand, the loss of fingers from the other and damage to his eyes.
In separate incidents two 29-year-old men both suffered minor lacerations from flying firecrackers, while a three-year-old boy standing outside a church in Aradippou with his parents was burnt him above his eyebrows. A 10-year-old suffered burns to her right arm as she was standing on church grounds with her father.
In another incident, riot police MMAD were called in to deal with a situation involving a number of rubber tyres being thrown onto the bonfire causing the release of dense and irritant fumes. A 27-year-old man was detained and 10 others were questioned.
Over 10,000 firecrackers have been found and confiscated since the crackdown on firecrackers and resulting convictions of offenders began in March, said Angelides.

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