One person died and at least 24 others were injured yesterday after “several dozen rockets” due to be launched for a religious festival in Penacova “exploded in series”.
The impact of two explosions, coming within seconds of each other during a packed Mass, ripped through part of a chapel roof in the village of Gondelim, causing chandeliers to crash to the ground.
Instruments stored in an upstairs room were quite literally blown upwards before they came tumbling down on the heads of terrified worshippers. Homes nearby suffered broken windows and other damages.
The chaos prompted up to 100 people to rush outside into the street where, according to reports, some were run over.
In total, three Coimbra hospitals attended 24 people, including five children, for various injuries.
Says local website Penacova Actual, two people are said to be in a critical condition, three are seriously hurt and the rest suffered what were considered to be light injuries.
The fatality was a young man employed by fireworks business Pyrocantanhede. André Videira Baptista had been in the process of setting up the rockets in the churchyard ahead of the procession in honour of Nossa Senhora da Moita.
It appears he was working with a colleague with “vast experience” who suffered “very serious injuries”.
The incident took place at 12.30 on Thursday and the blasts were of such intensity that they were heard 10 kms away.
This morning, tabloid Correio da Manhã said “a failing in the handling of the explosives” is being investigated.
Failings in explosives handling have been behind numerous such incidents in the past – the worst being the terrible deaths of eight people (most of them from the same family) in Lamego last Easter (click here).
Only last Monday, nine people were injured in the parish of Fiscal, Amares (Braga district) when a rocket exploded during Easter celebrations. Again, it is not immediately clear what went wrong, but reports talk about a rocket that failed to “go up as it was supposed to”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
Photo: André Novais/ Lusa
