News - Man injured by launching firework from his bottom

Man injured by launching firework from his bottom

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1943543,00.html

Mark Oliver and agencies
Thursday November 9, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

A man has suffered severe internal injuries after trying to launch a
powerful firework from his bottom on bonfire night, it emerged today.

It was thought that the 22-year-old was trying to copy a scene from the
2002 film Jackass: The Movie, which has long been condemned by safety
campaigners and blamed for inspiring dangerous pranks.

The man is reported to have got down on all fours, lowered his trousers
and fixed a Black Cat Thunderbolt rocket to himself in front of a group
of friends at the end of a firework display in the Monkwearmouth area
of Sunderland on Sunday.

Fuzzy mobile phone footage shows a blinding white flash and the group
of spectators laughing.

In the Jackass film, a rocket is launched in this way without causing
injury, but the Sunderland man - a soldier who has just returned from
Iraq - was not so lucky.

One witness described how he stood up and initially appeared to be
unhurt, but then stumbled and fell to the ground, and it became clear
he was bleeding. Paramedics and police were called to the scene.

A spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service said: "We received a
call stating there was a male who had a firework in his bottom and it
was bleeding. He was attended to and taken to Sunderland Royal
hospital."

The man, whose injuries include a scorched colon, is still in hospital.

Safety experts were incredulous. A spokesman for the Firework
Association said he had never heard of an incident like it in 45 years.
He added: "This sort of thing is beyond belief.

"We have spent a long time working with the government to create laws
that make fireworks safer and better for the public. This incident is
very concerning but hopefully an isolated one."

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
(RoSPA) said: "It's so unfortunate that someone is now paying the price
for the misuse of fireworks.

"Let's not forget these are explosives. They come with specific
instructions about how they should be used."

The RoSPA said a quarter of injuries from fireworks were caused by
people carrying out pranks in the street.

In another bonfire night incident at Ham Hill Country Park near Yeovil,
Somerset, a partridge was killed after fireworks were strapped to its
body. A park ranger said the bird had been "blown apart".

The RSPCA has appealed for information.

.

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