Police seized thousands of illegal fireworks in different parts of Greece on April 19 and 20, just as doctors were trying to save a teenager's fingers after a firecracker exploded in his hand.
The 15-year-old from the island of Kalymnos in the southeastern Aegean was taken to the hospital on the island of Kos and then to Athens, where doctors are trying to ensure he will not lose one or more fingers on his right hand, the newspaper reported. "Kathimerini".
Meanwhile, police confiscated more than 130,000 illegal fireworks and flares in an attempt to limit the damage from what has become a Greek Orthodox Easter custom of setting off thousands of fireworks when church bells herald the Resurrection of Christ on Holy Saturday.
The custom is also often seen as a sporting competition, with neighbouring villages or urban areas competing to see who can make the most noise.
Residents of the Athens suburb of Neos Kosmos took things a step further by firing Molotov cocktails instead of the usual flares and fireworks, which terrified other residents.
In Corinth, police arrested three people, including a 17-year-old boy, on charges of public disorder for setting off powerful fireworks at a local sports ground, but a subsequent search of the suspects' homes turned up an arsenal of explosives. | BGNES