Celebration Gone Wrong: Blasts kill 15, leave over 4,000 injured at Iran's firework festival

Explosions at Iran’s fire festival have killed at least 15 people and injured 4,000. The incident took place in the capital city of Tehran where Iranians had gathered to celebrate the last Wednesday eve before Nowruz.

A FARS news agency report quoted Babak Yektaparast, spokesperson of the Iranian National Medical Emergency Organisation saying that 72 per cent of those injured this year were under 22 years old.

Among those injured in the celebrations between Feb 20 and March 12, 565 individuals are still hospitalised, with 38 in ICU. Four people remain in critical condition, the official said.

Seeing a rise of 21 per cent in the death toll and 13 per cent in injuries compared to the same period last year, the fire festival has seen serious consequences, Yektaparast said.

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This year, blasts left 257 people with amputated bodies and 1,594 people suffering eye injuries.

Over 1,200 people sustained burn injuries as a result of the huge fire, as per the spokesperson.

In the run-up to Nowruz, the Persian New Year, many Iranians celebrate Chaharshanbe Suri, a traditional festival of fire that encompasses setting off fireworks and lighting bonfires.

Iran’s government has for years discouraged the celebration because of its pre-Islamic origin and also because it gives people an opportunity to gather and criticise the government in public.

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Last year, to the dislike of Ali Khamenei-led government, people used the occasion to take to the streets and chant anti-government slogans with unverified videos surfacing from several cities. One of the videos showed women burning scarves and people throwing fireworks at a group of security forces on motorcycles in the wake of Mhasa Amini’s death in 2022, as per a report by the Washington Post.