More heaps of illegal fireworks continued to be seized around Italy on Wednesday ahead of bans on letting off festive explosive devices on New Year's Eve, measures which most Italians are expected to ignore.
In Naples and the surrounding province, where natives have a noted fondness for festive explosions, police seized 1,600 'Cobra' firecrackers.
In Crotone in Calabria over 400 kg of pyrotechnic materiel was impounded; five tonnes of illegal fireworks were seized in Puglia's Salento area, and six people cited; and in Cagliari on Sardinia 130 kg of illegal devices were taken off two stands in the main square of the island's capital.
Approximately 13,000 Christmas items that do not comply with European and national safety standards and 25,000 illegal fireworks were seized by the provincial command of the Guardia di Finanza tax police in Foggia in Puglia.
Meanwhile a man was arrested near Turin for hiding some 120 kg of illegal fireworks in his cellar.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature has issued a warning saying that animals are in danger of being traumatised, injured or even killed amid the expected New Year mayhem.
With fireworks already being let off, a dog died of shock after a banger exploded near him in Florence.
The Italian medical doctors' association issued a 'decalogue' for determined firework users saying, among other things, that do it yourself devices must be shunned and people should not try to pick up and relight fireworks that fail to go off.
"Prevention is the only way to ward off the risk of amputations," they said.
Italian police on Monday seized three tonnes of illegal fireworks across the province of Brescia north of Milan as the annual pre-New Year's Eve crackdown on unlawful pyrotechnic devices gathered pace across Italy.
Fourteen people were cited and one arrested near the northern city.
Every year the most powerful fireworks have outrageous name targetting youthful noise-lovers.
The latest one is the Sinner Bomb, named after the world-beating Italian tennis player Jannik.
In 2023 the Kvara Bomb was named after the Georgia wing dribbling sensation who sent league leaders and eventual Serie A winners Napoli's fans wild.
The huge banger named after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia aka Kvaradona for his similarities to Diego Maradona, joined past notorious illegal Naples fireworks including the COVID Bomb, Cobra 7, the Rambo 1, the Uranus 2020, the Kamikaze, the Bin Laden Bomb, The Maradona Bomb, The Pope Bomb, Desert Storm, Red October, Turbo 3, The Spread, Maya and Insigne, after another past Napoli darling, Italy striker Lorenzo Insigne.
Meanwhile Kim O'Coreano, a Neapolitan dialect tag for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, is still going strong.
Every year fireworks-mad Naples is the Italian city that has the most injuries, and sometimes fatalities, due to the NYE explosive mania.
Women in Naples got so fed up with their menfolk in 2008 that they launched a 'no sex if you let off fireworks' drive.
The operation had some success as the number of injuries dropped by about 100.
Many of the illegal fireworks sold in Italy are actually rudimentary bombs.
Last New Year's Day hundreds of Italians were nursing burns and injuries and some lost fingers as a result of New Year celebrations with fireworks that went wrong.
Fireworks have been banned in most Italian cities at the New Year but most Italians are expected to flout the bans.
Naples has already given in to its citizens' noted inclinations and is not enforcing a ban.
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