(ANSA) - Police have already begun cracking down on illegal fireworks ahead of the New Year's holiday and on Thursday seized over five tonnes in a Neapolitan suburb.
The illegal fireworks were amassed in large boxes hidden in the basement of a building in Frattamaggiore, where police said a known hoodlum, 43-year-old Fioravate Castiello, lived.
Preventive action by police last year netted some 300 tonnes of illegal fireworks.
Police believe this allowed for a reduction in the number of injuries from the traditional New Year's fireworks mayhem with 517 people suffering minor injuries and 33 serious injuries, compared to 545 minor injuries and 39 serious injuries the year before.
Naples is the city which each year has the grimmest toll of injuries and sometimes death from fireworks injuries.
