After a weekend marred by law breaking behaviour at Easter bonfires, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis on Tuesday said he would write to the Supreme Court to request that cases involving people arrested in “serious cases of juvenile delinquency” over the Easter weekend proceed to trial immediately.

“Molotov cocktails were thrown at police officers, tyres were burned in the middle of streets,” he told CyBC radio, adding that many such incidents took place “far away” from Easter bonfires, known as lambradjies, “which means that these behaviours were not related to the custom”.

Additionally, he said he will begin consultations with Education Minister Athena Michaelidou with the aim of “linking every extracurricular activity to the conduct of every pupil” at schools.

He said references to any given child’s conduct “both inside and outside school premises” will appear “on the school leaving certificate or any other relevant document”.

Fire service spokesman Andreas Kettis said that the fire brigade recorded a total of 415 incidents related to lambradjies over the Easter period. This number, he said, is a sharp increase on the 320 which were recorded over the same period last year.

He added that the fire service the justice minister want to bring the custom of the lambradjia back into its proper context.

Police on Tuesday said that a total of 18 arrests were made and over 4,000 firecrackers were seized throughout the duration of the Easter period.

They added that between April 7 and Monday, they carried out 2,334 inspections at parks, churchyards, and other “open spaces frequented by young people”, while 1,120 people were searched.

Criminal incidents over the Easter weekend included the throwing of rocks and firecrackers at the police by youths in the Larnaca suburb of Livadia in the early hours of Sunday morning after similar incidents the day before in Paphos and Larnaca.

Members of the public had reportedly called the police complaining of “firecrackers, flares, and other objects” being thrown at passing vehicles by a group of youths on a roadside.

When the police responded, rocks and firecrackers were also thrown at them.

Earlier, the police had said they intervened in tens of incidents related to illegal lambradjies and the throwing of firecrackers, with officers having been the target of firecrackers, rocks, and even Molotov cocktails in some reported incidents.

The police had also reported tyres being burnt on a street corner in Limassol.

Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man from Paphos suffered a “serious injury” to one of his hands after a firecracker was thrown at him. Police said the man was stood in a church courtyard on Saturday then the firecracker was thrown at him by an “unknown person”.

While not an act of delinquency, the most serious incident of the weekend was the death of 22-year-old Daniel Cristian Fratilescu, who was killed while constructing a lambradjia in the Nicosia suburb of Strovolos.

Fratilescu was reportedly hit by a “large pole” which fell from the pile of material being amassed to build a lambradjia.

Elsewhere, non-governmental organisation Accept – LGBTI Cyprus reacted with fury to an image of an Easter bonfire, known as a “lambradjia”, adorned with placards with “LGBT” written on them.

In a social media post, they first cited a verse of the Bible, Luke 23:34, which reads, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”.

“We wish happy celebrations to everyone, with love, and not with the ‘Christian’ type of love seen in the picture,” they added.

“And no, they are not children. They are future parents, our youth, the future, which seems bleak”.

The picture was reportedly taken outside the church of Saint George Havouzas in Limassol.