Police on the eastern Aegean island of Chios have confiscated nearly 1,000 homemade rockets ahead of the traditional Easter “Rouketopolemos” (rocket war), a local custom that attracts both interest and safety concerns.
Authorities announced Friday that officers from the Chios Crime Investigation Department discovered 952 improvised rockets and 361 rocket molds during a raid on an abandoned building in the Omiroupoli area.
The seizure is part of an ongoing crackdown on the illegal possession, manufacture, trafficking, and use of fireworks and explosives leading up to Orthodox Easter.
A criminal case has been opened by the local department in connection with the discovery, police said.
The confiscation comes just days before the Resurrection night festivities in the town of Vrontados, where rival parishes traditionally fire thousands of homemade rockets at each other’s church bell towers in a long-standing and unofficially tolerated spectacle.
Despite its popularity among locals and tourists, the event has repeatedly raised safety concerns over the years.