Firecracker seizures up 200 per cent

POLICE confiscated a total of 15,918 illegal firecrackers that caused 11 injuries and 17 incidents of damage to property during a seven-week period leading up to and including Easter.

The total was up over 200 per cent in 2005, when 4,976 firecrackers were confiscated. The number of people arrested also jumped from 30 last year to 36 this year. In 2003, only 1,863 firecrackers were confiscated and in 2004 the number was 3,738.
In all, 64 people were questioned in connection with the possession of firecrackers this year, 27 of whom were minors. Police said, however, that the number of injuries was significantly down on 2005, when 18 people were slightly injured, and ten were seriously injured. This year only saw seven slight injuries and four serious injuries.
Of those, one was a six-year-old child in Paphos and another a 14-year-old in Nicosia. The other two injured people were over 18. The six-year-old sustained a serious injury to his right hand and the 14-year-old sustained second-degree burns to 15 per cent of his body.

The biggest haul of firecrackers, 7,190, was confiscated in Limassol, while 4,824 were nabbed in Paphos and 3,712 in Larnaca. Only 95 firecrackers were confiscated in Nicosia.

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