Eleven Injured By Fireworks

PHUKET TOWN: Despite a plea from Governor Chadej Insawang to exercise extreme caution when lighting fireworks on the final night of the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival, eleven local residents were admitted to Wachira General Hospital Wednesday with fireworks-related injuries. A hospital spokesman told the Gazette that one of those admitted, a 15-year-old boy, had to undergo amputation of his left index finger after a firecracker he was holding exploded. The boy, along with the ten other patients, was treated and released. It was not immediately known how many were admitted for such injuries during the first eight days of the nine-day festival, or how many were treated at other local hospitals. As in the past, the annual festivities closed with a three-hour parade accompanied by thousands of fireworks ignited by celebrants packed into the streets of Phuket Town.