Police in the Peloponnesian town of Kalamata have arrested seven suspects, including one municipal official, in connection with the fatal injury of a 53-year-old camera operator during a flare throwing contest on Sunday.
The victim, identified as 53-year-old Costas Theodorakakis, had been filming the event for about 20 minutes when a stray flare hit him on the head, the director of a local hospital told the media.
Despite the doctors’ efforts to save him, the cameraman died shortly afterward.
The six were part of a group waving flares in a Kalamata parking area. The municipal official was reportedly responsible for organizing the show. The seven are expected to appear before a prosecutor Monday.
Flare throwing has been an old, and occasionally deadly, Easter tradition in Greece.