Seven arrested over cameraman death during Easter celebration in the Peloponnese

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.