December 5, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. Law enforcement officers of the Vitebsk region have launched raids to detect the illegal sale of pyrotechnic products, Vladimir Pranko, Deputy Head of the Public Order and Prevention Department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, told a BELTA correspondent. The operatives are focusing on markets, shopping arcades and pavilions near shops, and areas near educational institutions, where enterprising traders often try to sell firecrackers and fireworks to minors. Patrol and beat service officers have also intensified their attention. Close control over the circulation of pyrotechnic products will be carried out in the region until New Year's Day, and will also cover the first half of January. At the same time, despite the holidays being still far off, law enforcement officers have already detected the first illegal sale of this product this year: on December 2, officers of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Polotsk City Department of Internal Affairs recorded the sale of fireworks without quality certificates by a seller in one of the shopping centers in Polotsk. A total of 22 pyrotechnic items with a total value of about Br6.5 million were seized from him. An investigation is underway. The new season has also seen the first victims due to careless handling of pyrotechnics: a young resident of Orsha received gunshot wounds to the face while launching a pyrotechnic rocket. Vladimir Pranko drew special attention to the responsibility of parents for the actions of their children. Thus, at the end of October, three legal representatives of teenagers from the Pervomaisky district of Vitebsk, who were setting off fireworks, were brought to administrative responsibility under Article 9.4 "Failure to fulfill duties for child-rearing" of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus, which entails a warning or a fine of up to ten basic units. In December 2011, about 30,000 pyrotechnic items were seized in the region, and officers of the internal affairs bodies of the region and interested departments conducted over 140 raids to counter the illegal circulation and use of pyrotechnic products. Pyrotechnics were seized in the Oktyabrsky, Zheleznodorozhny and Pervomaisky districts of Vitebsk, Orsha, Polotsk, Sharkovshchyna, Braslav and Lepel districts. -0-

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