Three killed, over 1,000 hurt celebrating Iran fire festival
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Iranian families lighting a fire outside their houses in Teheran during the Chaharshanbe Suri celebrations, on March 16, 2021.
PHOTO: AFP
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TEHERAN (AFP) - Three people were killed and nearly 1,900 injured celebrating Iran's traditional fire festival in the run-up to this weekend's Persian New Year, emergency services said on Wednesday (March 17).
One of the deaths was in Teheran, despite an overnight ban on gatherings imposed in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The Chaharshanbe Suri celebrations, during which participants jump over bonfires to purify themselves and ward off evil spirits, are part of Iran's pre-Islamic heritage and generally frowned on by the Shi'ite clerical establishment.
But they are popular with young people, many of whom make their own fireworks for the event.
"Three people died during the festival, one of them in the capital," emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi told AFP.
Another 1,894 people were injured, most of them men, Mr Khaledi said.
Six more people were killed in the run-up to the event, he added, seemingly referring to incidents in which people were handling explosives to make their own fireworks.
Last year, several provinces imposed bans on fire festival celebrations as Iran battled a first wave of coronavirus infections.
This year, the Teheran police banned gatherings, but the ban was widely breached as groups of people assembled in various parts of the city to light bonfires and set off firecrackers, AFP correspondents reported.
"In the current situation where everyone is stressed and anxious because of the coronavirus, (celebrating) is really not at all bad," said a 38-year-old housewife sitting by one of the bonfires, who gave her name only as Charareh.
"Personally, I came here tonight to get rid of all the stress," she said.
