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The common in many parts of Greece Easter custom to throw and detonate firecrackers and fireworks took human casualties this year as well. Two men aged 30 and 39 from Mandriko village in Rhodes died while detonating the improvised explosive mechanism after the bells rang at midnight on Easter. The mechanism exploded in their hands on the Saturday before the holiday. 

According to sources the young man, who was a heavy equipment operator went to the home of the 39-year-old farmer to assemble the explosive. However, it suddenly exploded and the two men died on the spot. Their bodies were found by villagers who came to see what had happened once they heard the strong bang. 

On Wednesday four people were injured in an abandoned industrial building in Kalamata, while preparing firecrackers for Saturday, which ended up exploding. 

On Evia peninsula the game of a 26-year-old man with such a small bomb almost took the life of a 7-year-old child. As soon as the priest in the church of the village Antidona said "Christ has risen," the young man lit the cracker. It exploded very close to the child who was wounded in the face. 

Although each year dozens of people end up in hospitals instead around the festive table the interest and willingness to participate to fire homemade crackers and bombs does not subside. 

Easter celebrations on the island of Kalymnos are "exploding”. Each year hundreds of fire crackers explode. This year the participants had prepared about two thousand crackers, each weighing an average of one kilogram. 

Firecracker war is a custom that runs vested in the island of Chios since Turkish occupation. At the beginning the inhabitants of both parishes, which belong to the adjacent to one another churches of St Mark and Mary Eritiani have made little handmade cannons. Gradually they have become improvised firecrackers and fireworks that people made from saltpeter, sulfur and gunpowder. 

Preparations for next year start from the day after Easter. "The warriors" of the two parishes exchange several thousand fireworks, thereby creating a truly fantastic spectacle. There are many Greeks who visit the island for that day in order to attend the "fireworks war”. In order to preserve the custom in recent years local authorities have taken several measures to protect attendees. 

Meanwhile, for unexplained reasons, three cars were burnt in the early morning hours in the capital neighborhoods of Ambelokipi and Eksarhiya. The Fire Service will investigate the causes of the accidents.