Stray bullets and exploding firecrackers have killed two and injured hundreds in the Philippines, authorities said yesterday, amid the nation’s traditionally riotous New Year celebrations.
A drunk man died after he embraced a giant firecracker, called “Goodbye Philippines,” as it was about to explode, Philippine Secretary of Health Janette Garin told reporters.
“His jaw was shattered. He was so intoxicated he hugged the Goodbye Philippines,” Garin said, adding that the man was pronounced dead at hospital.
Photo: EPA
Eighty percent of the nation’s 100 million people are Catholic, but Philippine superstition dictates making ear-shattering noises on New Year’s Eve to ward off bad luck.
Revelers set off firecrackers and shoot guns into the air to celebrate the festive season.
The health department listed 380 injuries due to fireworks and four others due to stray bullets.
In many hospitals across the nation, firecracker victims rushed into emergency rooms grimacing in pain as they held their bloodied limbs.
An eight-year-old boy in the northern farming province of Nueva Vizcaya had three of his fingers amputated after a firecracker exploded in his hands, Garin said.
At least nine children had their fingers amputated due to firecracker injuries, she said.
In a Manila shantytown, a lit firecracker started a slum inferno, which quickly spread, fire bureau spokesman Renato Marcial said.
The blaze destroyed a cramped maze of wood and cardboard huts in the early hours of yesterday, leaving 3,000 people homeless, city disaster officer Johnny Yu said.
Panicked and weeping residents fled their burning homes carrying clothes and furniture, while men, many of whom were drunk from a night of merrymaking, desperately tried to put out the fire with buckets of water, a photographer at the scene said.
A 65-year-old woman died from a heart attack as she watched her house burn, Yu said.
Many in the Philippines keep licensed guns in their homes to protect themselves in a high-crime society, and most firecrackers are legal and easily available.
The 384 injuries recorded so far are up from 354 the previous New Year.
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