Cops sound alert over 'quota 100 bomb'

(ANSA) - Salerno, December 27 - Italian police on Friday sounded the alarm over a "bomb-like" and "weapons grade" New year's Eve banger dubbed 'quota 100' after a government pension reform.
    "Quota 100 has devastating power," Carabinieri said.
    "It contains 700-800 grammes of explosives, it is a real bomb," they said.
    "I urge everyone not to buy them," said Michele Landi, head of the police bomb squad in Salerno south of Naples, where many of the biggest illegal bangers are made.
    "These products are nothing other than military ordnance and as such must not be used, absolutely".
    Police have recently been arresting people for selling illegal fireworks, and seizing the potentially deadly products, as a traditional holiday crackdown has continued in the runup to the New Year.
    Over the years, the most explosive finds have included children's favourites like Bin Laden's Puppets, Saddam's Head, Terminators, Spring Thunderers, Magnum Sams, Maradona's Balls and the Vesuvius Firecracker.
    De facto mortars and letter bombs weighing over a kilogramme and packing a potentially lethal punch have regularly been confiscated.
    Every year Italian police launch campaigns aimed at easing Italy's customary New Year mayhem.
    The outrageous names of the most powerful fireworks are targeted at youthful mayhem-lovers.
    In one recent year the biggest banger was the Kamikaze, or suicide-bomber.
    The year before that, the fastest seller on the backstreet firework market was the Bin Laden Bomb.
    Police have confiscated stockrooms of potentially deadly devices ahead of Italy's New Year's Eve firework fest, especially in and around Naples, the city that each year has the grimmest toll of injuries and sometimes deaths.
    Last New Year's Day hundreds of Italians were nursing burns and injuries and some lost fingers as a result of New Year celebrations with fireworks that went wrong.