Newsroom
Local residents in the Republic of Cyprus were rattled as illegal bangers kept people and pets up all night during the Orthodox Easter tradition, with police reporting delinquent behavior, at least two amputations, several fire incidents under investigation.
Three males were injured on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday as illegal fireworks took center stage in villages and towns that celebrated the Orthodox tradition across the island.
A teenager in Nicosia lost a finger on his right hand during a firecracker mishap which took place at 8:50pm in the Acropolis borough.
An hour later a 35-year-old male in the capital’s southern suburbs also lost two fingers on his left hand when an incident involving a firecracker took place around 9:35pm outside a local church.
Police told Knews it was still unclear whether the injured man had an illegal banger in his possession or he was a innocent bystander.
Police told Knews it was still unclear whether the injured man had an illegal banger in his possession or he was a innocent bystander
In the early morning hours in Malounta, rural Nicosia, a 34-year-old male was attempting to remove an unknown device when it exploded in his hand around 3:45am. The nature and seriousness of his injury was not immediately known by police did not rule out amputation.
Police were also called out in several incidents where youths were preventing fire fighters from approaching lambradjia bonfires, a local but dangerous custom where an effigy of effigy of Judas is set alight.
Fire fighters and law enforcement officers in Nicosia and Limassol were reportedly pelted with rocks while fire fighters in the southern town were also targeted with Molotov Cocktails.
There were also reports of car damages with one vehicle being totally destroyed by fire in the old Nicosia hospital downtown across from the Parliament building.
Another car owned by a 21-year-old male in Emba, Paphos district, sustained extensive damages following a fire. Police did not provide details as to the location except to say it was parked on the side of a public road. Arson has not been rueld out.
Another explosion in Limassol damaged the windshield of a vehicle in Polemidia, with police being reluctant to include the report in the Easter incidents expect to say an illegal banger appeared to have been used.
Knews has learned that loud banging noises from illegal fireworks could be heard all night in several cities, including some areas in Nicosia until 5:30am.
Police did not readily have data on Sunday morning as to how many phone calls were made by concerned citizens but an official speculated the number of complaints regarding illegal bangers in neighborhoods is typically high this time of the year.
